When should you accept partial fault for an auto accident

Hello, my name is Barry Zlotowicz and I’m a personal injury lawyer in Chicago Illinois. In this video, you’re going to learn when should you accept partial fault for an auto accident.

Where you told by the insurance company that you were partially responsible for the accident and as a result the insurance company was reducing your recovery?

This topic involves the concept of comparative negligence. Insurance companies use comparative negligence to dispute part of responsibility for an accident and to reduce the amount of an auto accident victim’s damages.

It’s no secret why they’re doing this. State Farm claims that they process 38,000 claims a day. If they save just $1k on every claim, that’s $38M saved – PER DAY.

While this may sound frustrating to you, there may be a time to accept partial responsibility for an accident.

So first, what is comparative negligence? Well, in my home state of Illinois what it means is that the victim of an accident can recover if they are not more than 50% at fault for the accident.

Many states follow the concept of comparative negligence or comparative fault. Not all states do however. California comparative negligence is a bit different. In California, they follow the concept of “pure comparative negligence.” This means that even if you are 90% at fault for the accident, you can still recover 10% of your damages from the defendant.

Now other states such as North Carolina, follow the concept of contributory negligence. This is a ridiculous law that states that if the victim has any portion of fault for an accident, even 1 percent, that they are barred from recovery. SO IF YOU ARE in North Carolina or Virginia DO NOT accept any responsibility for an accident.

So how does comparative negligence work? If you get in an auto accident and you accept 20% of the fault for the accident, you will be entitled to 80% of your damages from the other party. So, if your car costs $10,000 to repair, you will receive $8,000 from the other side and you will have to come up with the extra $2,000. Same for your medical bills and pain and suffering. If your case is worth $100,000 and you are 20% at fault for the accident, your maximum recovery will be $80,000.

Doesn’t sound like a great deal does it? But, in a very few circumstances. It may be a good idea to accept some of the fault. One instance where you might want to accept some fault for the accident, is when you just “want to get on with your case.”

So for example, let’s say you get in an auto accident, you’ve got 5k in property damage to your car and Allstate Insurance says you were 10% responsible for the accident.

You’re thinking I’m not responsible at all. Well, if Allstate won’t budge, and they don’t have to, then you have a choice to make. You can accept the 10% and move forward with your case or you can file a lawsuit.

But generally speaking, a lawsuit is not the best option. Do you have the resources to fight a 40B$ company if you don’t have to? Now I’m not saying you give a recorded statement and admit on the record that you’re partially at fault for the accident. I’m just saying you might want to accept the 10% and kind of live to fight another day.

The second situation where we’ve accepted some fault even where we didn’t want to, was where our client’s injuries were so bad, it didn’t matter that we accepted some fault for the accident. We knew we were going to get the whole insurance policy anyways.

For example, I was working on a motorcycle accident case a long while back, our client was T-boned while riding his motorcycle through an intersection. The car turned left in front of him and was thus the majority at fault. But the motorcyclist was speeding slightly at the time of the accident and it was on the police report.

The insurance adjuster alleged comparative negligence. Normally, we’d fight it. But the insurance adjuster told us that the defendant had a $100,000 auto insurance policy. And our client’s injuries were worth way more than that. So, we accepted partial responsibility for the accident so that we could continue moving forward with his case while knowing that we were going to recover the entire $100,000 regardless of some comparative fault.

If you were involved in an auto accident or motorcycle accident and the insurance adjuster alleges that you were comparatively negligent for the accident, reach out to me at info@legalvlogger.com. If I can’t help you, I’ll find someone who can.

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