Filing a lawsuit against the alleged at-fault party does not automatically make him or her culprit in the eyes of law. You need to come up with evidences to prove your claim; otherwise your allegation will be proved false. As it is never easy to collect and produce evidences, you should take help of a Hollywood, FL personal injury attorney.
Did You Sustain the Injury at Work?
Determining legal responsibility, often called liability, for an injury or car accident involves complications of several types and on multiple layers, but often depends on if someone acted negligently or intentionally. But before coming to the point, you must figure out who the at-fault party was.
Determining Legally Liable Person
Someone else’s carelessness plays a role in most accidents. As per the thumb of the rule, if two persons are involved in a car accident and one is less negligent than the other, the more careless person is obliged to pay the less negligent individual for the damages the latter has suffered.
This rule of negligence determines legal liability for almost all types of accidents. One or more of the propositions listed below is also taken into consideration to determine legal liability:
- If the victim was not supposed to be present at the site of the accident or if the injured expected any activity that could potentially cause the harm, someone else might not be legally responsible for the accident as he or she had no obligation to stay careful toward the injured party.
- If the injured person’s carelessness is proved, it will trim the amount of compensation to be awarded to the victim and extent of carelessness determines how much it will affect compensable damages. It is called comparative negligence.
- If a careless person is responsible for an accident while working for an individual, organization or company, the employer may be held legally liable for the mishap.
- If an accident took place on a dangerous property because it was not properly maintained or poorly built, the property owner is legally responsible for his or her carelessness in property maintenance, irrespective of whether the person created the harmful condition.
- If a defective product is the cause of an accident, the manufacturer and seller of the product will be held liable even if the victim has no idea of which of them was responsible for creating the defect or allowing the same, or how the defect actually occurred.
More Than One Person Involved
Sometimes, more than one person is responsible for a single accident. In such cases, the personal injury laws in most states clearly mention that any one of the negligent parties is liable for awarding full compensation to the victim for his or her injuries. The liable parties must discuss between themselves to decide if one should reimburse the other involved parties.
Can Your Own Negligence Affect Your Compensation Claim
Yes, it can. If your carelessness has something to do with the accident, you will still be able to receive some compensation in most states. Extent of the other party’s carelessness for the accident-related injury is determined through comparison between the victim’s carelessness and the defendant’s.
