In our last post, we spoke briefly about a case in which the issue negligence came into question in an interesting way. One of the interesting questions the case raises is: what happens in auto accident cases when there are multiple parties who are found to be negligent?
Simply because multiple parties are negligent doesn’t mean each party’s negligence caused the injuries in question. So, it has to be determined exactly which acts of negligence constituted the proximate cause of the plaintiff’s injuries. Once this is determined, the question becomes: how to apportion liability?
In Colorado, as in most other states, plaintiffs may have their damages award reduced to account for the degree to which they jury deems them to have been at fault for their own injuries. The rules vary, though, in terms of how at fault a plaintiff may be and still have the ability to recover. In Colorado, plaintiffs may still recover if they are 49 percent or less at fault, but not if they are at least 50 percent at fault.
What this means from the perspective of building a strong personal injury case is that plaintiffs need to build a strong case for the liability of other parties and present strong evidence showing either that they were not negligent or that, if they were, their negligence was not the cause of their own injuries. Depending on the circumstances of the case, this is not necessarily an easy task, but it is an important one.
Our firm is committed to helping plaintiffs to maximize their recovery in auto accident cases, and plaintiffs can be sure that if they work with us, we will provide them the advocacy their case deserves.