Car accidents sometimes have an at-fault driver and an innocent victim, but many cases are much less clear. Instead, your crash might involve you, a driver who did pretty much everything right, and the other driver, who definitely did something wrong. Determining degrees of fault and whether you did anything wrong to contribute to the crash will be important in determining fault and damages.
In a car accident case, New York law allows each driver to be assigned a percentage of fault. Once the total damages are calculated, the court can essentially assign that same percentage of damages to each driver, meaning that the other driver(s) might pay you only some of the damages. Any percents assigned to you as the victim will simply be dropped – your damages are reduced by your own percentage of fault, leaving you to deal with those damages out of pocket or through your no-fault insurance coverage.
For help with a car accident case, call our Westchester, NY car accident lawyers at The Martello Law Firm at (914) 685-6950 today.
New York’s Comparative Fault Rules for Injury Cases
For centuries, lawmakers and judges have come up with different ways to deal with a victim who might have contributed to their own accident in some way. The classic common law standard is known as “contributory negligence,” and it says that a driver who contributed to causing their own accident in any way cannot recover damages. This is an incredibly strict rule that leaves many victims out of compensation because they did something really minor, like looking down at the radio for a second. New York law uses a different system that is much friendlier to victims, allowing our Yonkers, NY car accident lawyers to help them recover compensation even when they were part of the cause.
New York’s Pure Comparative Fault Rule
Our current law is a “comparative fault” rule actually known as a “pure” comparative fault rule. Under this system, each at-fault party is assigned a percentage of fault, including the victim (if they contributed to the accident). Each party then pays that percentage of the total damages, with the victim losing out on the percentage of damages that matches their percentage of the blame for the accident.
Example
An example is helpful here. Imagine there is a crash where a drunk Driver A is swerving across the road and hits a speeding Driver B. If you, a third driver, were following Driver B a bit too closely, you might have been caught in the crash, too. A court might assign blame by saying Driver A is 90% at fault for driving drunk, but they might say Driver B and you are each 5% at fault for speeding and following too closely.
In a case like this, let’s say you suffered $100,000 in damages. Driver A would pay $90,000, Driver B would pay you $5,000, and you would lose out on the other $5,000 that accounts for your 5% fault.
Other States
This is a more victim-friendly rule than the “modified” comparative fault rules used in many states, where the victim cannot recover if they are at or over 50% fault (depending on the state’s phrasing of the rule). With New York’s “pure” contributory negligence rule, you can still recover for a crash even if you were 99% at fault, although it often isn’t worth an injury lawsuit for such low amounts, and our no-fault rules often block a lawsuit for small injuries anyway.
Some states also still use the contributory negligence rule, though additional legal principles can sometimes help victims from facing the full harshness of this rule. For example, you should not usually be held partially at fault if the other driver had the “last clear chance” to avoid the crash and failed to take it.
How Damages Are Affected by New York Car Accident Laws
As mentioned, the overall damages are divided up and assigned to each driver based on their percentage of the blame for the crash. This means that if you are found liable for a percentage of fault, you will lose out on claiming that percent of damages through a car accident lawsuit. In New York, we have no-fault insurance anyway, making this less impactful in some cases.
When you are injured in a car crash, your damages are first paid through your own car insurance. New York state minimum car insurance has to include at least $50,000 of coverage for “Personal Injury Protection” (PIP), which pays you and the passengers in your car damages for medical bills and lost wages up to certain percents of the total and subject to a deductible payment. You can only sue in the first place for pain and suffering and other damages if your injuries are considered “serious” and involve permanent injuries, a lost fetus, a fracture, or an injury that will disable you for 90 of the next 180 days.
That is a lot to keep in mind, but it essentially means this: a lot of your damages are getting paid regardless of fault before you even get to court. When you ultimately do take your case to court – if you can – then you might lose out on some of the compensation you need because you were partially at fault. However, your insurance might have already covered “your share” of damages anyway.
At the end of the day, depending on the percentage of fault you shared, you might not lose out on much of the damages because your no-fault policy helps protect you.
Victim Blaming in New York Car Accident Cases
Because defense attorneys know that they can often reduce how much their client needs to pay in damages by blaming the victim, this is a common strategy. Your every move and action will often be scrutinized in the wake of your car accident, with the defense looking for anything they can use to add percentage points to your fault and reduce their damages. However, there are strategies our attorneys can use to fight this. For example, your actions need to have actually made a difference in the crash; if the crash still would have happened no matter what you did, and you didn’t make your injuries worse, then you did not legally contribute to the crash in the first place.
Call Our New York Car Accident Lawyers Today
For a free review of your potential case, call our Harrison, NY car accident lawyers at The Martello Law Firm by dialing (914) 685-6950.
