In a simple car accident case, one driver did nothing wrong when they were suddenly struck and injured by a reckless driver. For example, one driver may be stopped at a red light when a careless driver fails to apply the brakes and slams into the back of the first car, injuring the first driver. In this kind of case, it’s fairly easy to tell who was at fault fault for the accident, who was behaving negligently and who can be held liable for the injured person’s damages.
There are plenty of car accident cases like that example, but many cases are not so straightforward. Sometimes, there are more than two drivers involved. Sometimes more than one driver acted negligently. How does the law deal with these more complicated cases?
Florida applies a legal principle known as comparative negligence. In this blog post, we will give you a general overview of how our state’s comparative negligence law works.
Negligence explained
The legal concept of negligence is based on the idea that everyone has a duty of care to avoid harming others. All drivers have a duty to drive carefully so that they do not crash into other cars or pedestrians. If a driver acts recklessly, they breach their duty and they can be held liable for the injured person’s damages.
These damages can include the costs of medical care, repair costs and lost wages, as well as compensation for their noneconomic damages such as pain and suffering. In cases involving serious injury, damages can also include future costs, such as the projected costs of long-term medical care.
Multiple negligent parties
As we noted above, in some accidents, more than one party acts negligently. Under Florida’s comparative negligence law, courts deal with these cases by assigning a percentage of fault to each party. So long as a party’s fault was not more than 50%, they can collect compensation from the other party. However, their compensation must be reduced in proportion to their share of the fault.
For example, let’s say Holmes is driving eastbound and Watson is driving westbound. It’s starting to get dark, but Holmes has not yet turned on his headlights. Meanwhile, Watson is texting on his phone and not looking at the road ahead of him. Watson’s car crosses the center line and drifts into the eastbound lane, where it strikes Holmes’ car.
Holmes is injured in the accident and requires a hospital stay. After meeting with his lawyer and calculating the total of his damages, Holmes sues Watson for $100,000.
When the case goes to trial, the court determines that both parties acted negligently and that their negligence contributed the accident. It assigns a degree of fault to each party: Holmes was 25% at fault because he did not turn on his headlights, while Watson was 75% at fault because he crossed into the eastbound lane.
This means Holmes can hold Watson liable for his damages, but his compensation must be reduced according to Holmes’ fault. Because Holmes was 25% at fault, his compensation is reduced by 25%, meaning that instead of $100,000, he can collect only $75,000.
By the same reasoning, if Watson was also injured in the accident, he could not hold Holmes liable for his damages. This is because Watson’s share of the fault was more than 50%.
It’s important for both plaintiffs and defendants to understand how comparative negligence works and how it might apply to the facts of their case.