How Does Comparative Fault Affect Your Car Accident Claim in Washington?

What is Comparative Negligence? How Does It Work in Washington?

If you are injured in a traffic crash in or near the Tacoma area because another motorist was impaired, distracted, or negligent, schedule a consultation – as soon as possible – with a Tacoma car accident attorney to discuss your legal rights and especially your right to compensation.

When it’s obvious who was at fault for a traffic accident, Washington State law requires the driver who was at fault to compensate those who were injured for their medical bills, lost earnings, personal pain and suffering, and other related damages and losses.

However, in many traffic collisions, the fault is not completely one-sided, and each driver is partially at fault. When these accidents generate personal injury claims, the courts in this state adhere to the legal principle known as “pure comparative negligence.”

How Does Pure Comparative Negligence Work?

Pure comparative negligence allows a motorist who was injured in a traffic collision to recover compensation even if that motorist was partially responsible for the accident. Even if you are 99 percent at fault, the State of Washington allows you to recover some amount of compensation.

Let’s say Driver One recklessly changes lanes and crashes into Driver Two, who was moving eleven miles per hour over the speed limit. A jury could determine that Driver One was 90 percent at fault, but Driver Two was 10 percent at fault due to exceeding the speed limit.

If Driver Two’s damages total $100,000, under Washington State’s pure comparative negligence rules, Driver Two’s compensation is reduced by 10 percent and that driver may recover only $90,000. The other driver would then qualify to recover 10 percent of his or her own damages.

How Are Injury Claims Resolved?

Most personal injury claims based on traffic accidents are settled when the attorneys for both sides negotiate an out-of-court settlement. However, when no reasonable settlement is offered in the private negotiations, or if liability for the accident is contested, the case can go to trial.

Car insurance companies prefer to minimize the amounts they pay out in personal injury claims, so your attorney should be a successful negotiator who also has abundant experience handling personal injury trials. You must not leave the matter to an untested or inexperienced attorney.

At a personal injury trial, jurors hear testimony from each side, see photographs of the crash and the damages, and must determine which driver should be held liable. If both drivers have partial liability for an accident, the jury will decide how much liability is assigned to each driver.

How Will a Personal Injury Lawyer Help You?

An experienced Tacoma personal injury attorney negotiates frequently with car insurance companies. Your attorney understands the negotiating tactics insurance companies use, and he or she knows what it will take to win the compensation you are entitled to by Washington law.

Your attorney should question the witnesses and examine the evidence as soon as possible after an accident. If you do not reach out to a lawyer at once, evidence deteriorates, memories fade, and it becomes more challenging to prove that you were injured and to recover compensation.

Your Tacoma car accident attorney will explain how Washington’s pure comparative negligence rules apply to your own case. Your attorney will negotiate – and go to trial, if necessary – for the justice and the compensation you need as an injured victim of someone else’s negligence.

Why is an Attorney’s Help Imperative?

Too often, accident victims do not seek legal help. They often don’t understand pure comparative negligence, often settle claims too early, and often take inadequate settlements. If you do that, you also waive the right to additional compensation and the right to take further legal action.

After you’ve been injured by another motorist’s negligence, your personal injury lawyer will fight for full compensation for your medical expenses, your lost earnings, your personal suffering and pain, and your other related damages and losses.

How Long Do You Have to Take Legal Action?

Usually after a traffic accident, Washington’s deadline for filing a personal injury claim is three years from the accident date. Exceptions to this deadline are limited, so if you miss the deadline, you will need to ask your attorney if your case may qualify as an exception.

However, this cannot be stressed strongly enough: If you have been injured recently in a traffic crash, or if you are injured by a negligent driver in the future, reach out to a personal injury attorney as quickly as possible after you’ve been examined and treated by a health care provider.

If You’re Not Working, How Can You Afford a Lawyer?

If a negligent driver injures you, and if you are temporarily unable to work, you may think that you can’t afford a lawyer’s help, but you can. A Tacoma personal injury attorney represents clients on a contingent fee basis.

This means that you will pay nothing for your first legal consultation, and you will pay no fee upfront. You will only owe a fee to your lawyer when and if you are compensated. If, for any reason, you are not compensated at the end of the legal process, your lawyer does not get paid.

Take Your Injury Claim to South Sound Law Group

If you have been injured in or near Tacoma because another driver was negligent, or if you are injured by a negligent motorist in the future, take your injury claim immediately to South Sound Law Group. We are a family-owned and family-operated law firm.

South Sound Law Group, has more than four decades of legal experience. During those decades, we’ve been fighting – and consistently winning – for the injured victims of negligence in Tacoma and throughout the western part of Washington State.

Our legal team knows how to bring your case to its best possible conclusion. If you are injured by a negligent driver, now or in the future, or if you simply need to learn more about your rights as a victim of negligence, call the South Sound Law Group immediately at 253-465-2722.