How Is "fault" Determined?

"Fault" is a term I hear thrown around a lot as an auto accident attorney

. Many people, however, aren't really sure what fault means.

When "fault" is being used to specifically refer to a car accident, it means the same thing it did when you were 8 years old and got in trouble at homeThat broken sculpture was always someone's fault. But was it your brother's fault for throwing it across the room? Or your fault for breaking it? Car accidents are no different. When injuries are the result of a car accident, who's responsible? Who is at fault?

Different states have different ways of determining fault. Some states are referred to as "pure comparative fault" states. What this basically means is that all parties involved may have some level of responsibility when an accident takes place. What this means for an injured party is that you may be entitled to some damages compensation, even if you are partly to blame for the accident. How much the court determines you were at fault compared to everyone else in the accident will determine the amount of your compensation. The judge or jury will determine who is at fault and by how much if you file a lawsuit.

Hypothetically if you're driving one day and someone hits you, it's their fault, right? Not quite, not automatically anyway. When trying to determine fault , the attorneys and the insurers will be looking at witness statements, police reports, the accident scene, and even medical records to try and put the blame on someone other than the party they're representing. Things like issued citations at the accident or other reports of negligence by the reporting officer can weigh heavily into an adjuster's determination of fault and who is to blame for the accident. Although citations are not the final determining factor for who is at fault, they can effectively support the adjuster's opinion.

Reliable witness statements can also be used to sort out events that lead up to the crash and determine who is at fault. If the witnesses testify that one of the drivers involved violated a traffic law then their statement can be used to help determine fault. Witnesses can also give what are called statements of opinion. This is when a witness says "well I think it was all the green car's fault", in this scenario you do NOT want to be the driver of the green car because a judge or jury might be inclined to agree.

You should note that I said RELIABLE witness. It can be tricky to find a reliable eyewitness for a car crash. This isn't because it's hard to convince people to talk about what they saw, but rather because watching a crash can be disturbing. A person can have trouble accurately remembering all the details of a crash because of how disturbing it can be. Point of view can also make eyewitness testimony tricky. An example of this is that most people tend to underestimate the speed of larger vehicles and overestimate the speed of motorcycles.

If you've recently been involved in an accident and you don't know whether or not you're at fault you need to speak with an experienced auto accident attorney immediately.

by: Jim Brown

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