You May Not Be Entirely Out Of Luck If You’re Partially At Fault For a Crash
If you were hurt in a car wreck and think that you were partially at fault, you may understandably believe that this makes it impossible to obtain compensation in a Colorado car accident lawsuit. But that is not necessarily the case.
Determining fault is a fundamental issue in every car accident lawsuit. If you cannot prove to a Colorado Springs judge or jury that the defendant’s reckless or negligent driving caused the wreck that led to your injuries, you will not recover any compensation for your losses.
There are times when one driver is clearly responsible for a car accident. For instance, the distracted or texting driver who rear-ends a stopped car; the drunk driver who runs through a stoplight and t-bones another car; or the speeding driver who loses control and plows into a nearby vehicle.
But in many car accidents, determining fault is not so cut-and-dry. Sometimes, a driver seeking compensation for their injuries may be partially responsible for the accident. For example, a driver who stops suddenly may have a broken brake light and another driver who was following too closely rear-ends them. If the brake light were working, perhaps the crash wouldn’t have happened. On the other hand, if the driver of the second car wasn’t tailgating the first car, they might have been able to stop before the impact.
Further Reading: 3 Reasons Why Determining Blame for Injuries is Best Left to Your Car Accident Lawyer
You Can Recover Compensation, But Only If You Are Less Than 50 Percent at Fault
Like many of its neighboring states, Colorado follows a principle called “comparative negligence” when allocating responsibility for a car accident. Specifically, if you get in a motor vehicle accident in Colorado and a judge or jury finds that you were partially responsible, you can still recover damages, but only if they conclude that you were 49 percent or less at fault.
CO Rev Stat § 13-21-111 provides that a person’s “contributory negligence” in causing an accident “shall not bar recovery in any action by any person or his legal representative to recover damages for negligence resulting in death or in injury to person or property if such negligence was not as great as the negligence of the person against whom recovery is sought…”
This means that if a judge or jury finds that you were 50 percent or more responsible for the accident, you will not be able to recover any compensation for your injuries.
However, in cases where the injury victim/plaintiff is less than 50 percent at fault, “any damages allowed shall be diminished in proportion to the amount of negligence attributable to the person for whose injury, damage, or death recovery is made.”
Does that sound confusing? Here’s how it works. Under Colorado’s contributory negligence statute, the judge or jury must determine the amount of damages that would have been recoverable had there been no contributory negligence. They must also allocate the degree of negligence of each party expressed as a percentage.
For instance, let’s say that a jury concludes that an injured car accident plaintiff incurred $100,000 in damages for their injuries and losses. But the jury also concludes that the plaintiff was 28 percent at fault for the accident, while the other driver was 72 percent to blame. The court would then reduce the award of $100,000 in damages by 28 percent, allowing the plaintiff to recover $72,000 from the defendant.
Different States, Different Outcomes
Not all Colorado’s neighboring states follow the same rule regarding comparative fault for car accidents, although Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Utah, and Wyoming do. In both Arizona and New Mexico, however, an injured plaintiff can recover damages no matter how much they were at fault for an accident. Even if a jury finds a plaintiff to be 99 percent at fault, they could, in theory, still try to obtain compensation representing that remaining one percent of damages that was the other driver’s fault.
Partially At Fault For Your Car Accident? Don’t Presume You Are Out Of Luck – Let’s Talk About Your Case.
If you’ve been in a car accident and think you may have been partially at fault, don’t let that stop you from calling a Colorado Springs car accident attorney to discuss your case. You still may be able to get compensation for your injuries.
At King & Beaty, LLC, we know what it takes to get the maximum amount of compensation available for those injured by other drivers’ negligence and recklessness, including in cases where our clients are partially at fault.
