Traffic accidents can range from annoying nuisances to complete tragedies. Sadly, vehicle collisions occur frequently, and many people will experience one throughout the course of their lives. After a car accident, the most important thing to do is to ensure that anyone who needs medical attention receives it, but not long after the dust settles the question that presents itself is “who was at fault?” If you suffered an injury in a car accident, you might be facing costly medical bills in addition to property damage and lost time at work. When injuries such as these are the fault of another person’s negligence, you can recover monetary damages from that person to cover these expenses and more. However, you can only recover if the other person was to blame.
What is negligence?
Negligence on the part of one or more of the drivers is often the cause of a car accident. In order to be considered legally negligent, a person must have acted in a way that a reasonably prudent person would not have acted under the same circumstances. There are many ways that a driver might negligently cause a car accident. If one of the drivers involved had been drinking prior to driving, or was texting, or applying make-up at the time of the accident, then there is a good chance that person could be said to have been negligent. After all, a reasonably prudent person would know that engaging in these risky driving behaviors was unwise.
What if both drivers were negligent?
Sometimes a driver will be sitting patiently, waiting for a red light to turn green, when they are smashed into from behind by a driver who was looking at their phone and not the road. In this case, it is pretty clear that the driver who was waiting for the light was not negligent, and that the person who rear ended them was. There would not really be any room to argue that the driver who was hit should have moved out of the way or done something to avoid the collision. However, many accidents are not as clear cut as this. It is also possible that one driver was texting and another driver was speeding and an accident occurred as the result of both drivers behaving negligently.
So, if you were in a car accident, and suffered an injury, but think you might have shared some of the blame for the accident having occurred in the first place, you might wonder how your actions could impact your ability to recover compensation from the other driver. The way that your claim would come out would depend on which state your accident occurred in, and how much of the blame you bear for the accident occurring.
Mississippi follows what is called “pure comparative negligence.” Under this, a person who was negligent can still collect compensation for his or her injuries from another driver who was also negligent. Rather than barring a driver from collecting compensation, the damages available would simply be reduced based on the percentage of blame attributed to the injured driver.
So if you were found to be 40% to blame in an accident where you suffered $100,000 in damages, you could collect $60,000 the other driver, who would be 60% to blame. While many states do not allow a person to collect if he or she was more than 49 or 50% responsible, Mississippi has no such restriction.
If you were in a car accident, contact the experienced Mississippi Car Accident Lawyer at Barrett Law, PLLC now to discuss your claim in detail. We can be reached at (800) 707-9577 or online on our website.