The 2 Laws You Need To Know About

1. Negligence

In the legal world, negligence is defined as the failure of a person to uphold a reasonable duty of care or breach the duty of care or standards of behaviours expected of them for the protection of people against unreasonable and avoidable risk of accident and injury. (Traceysolicitors)

To be compensated for the harm another party has caused you they must have behaved negligently. An example of which would be driving under the influence and causing a crash. The driver behaved negligently because they knew that they were putting others at risk and still chose to follow through and drive.

Furthermore the driver is said to have a “duty of care” for others on the road. A duty of care means you should not behave or act in a way which could potentially cause harm to others. You must be able to prove that a duty of care was breached to win a personal injury case.

2. The Statue of Limitations

The statue of limitations is easier to understand and much simpler than negligence. It is essentially the time frame in which you can file a personal injury claim. This time frame varies by state and sometimes even by the cause of injury. All states have a statue of limitations between 1 and 6 years, with most being around 2 or 3.

What State Did The Injury Occur In? *This affects how long you have to file a claim.

How Many Full Years Ago Did Your Accident OccurThis allows us to see if your accident falls within the statue of limitations.

Years left to file a personal injury claim

Years

Based on when your accident occurred you may not be able to file a personal injury claim.

Your Case

Statue Of Limitations

Your accident occurred outside of the statue of limitations. Unless you are a minor it is unlikely you will be able to file a case.

Your accident occurred outside of the statue of limitations. Unless are a minor it is unlikely you will be able to file a case.

Your accident occurred within the statue of limitations. Meaning if you choose to do so you will be able to file a personal injury case.

Contributory Negligence

The state you were injured in has contributory negligence laws. In states with contributory negligence laws even if you are only 1% responsible for the injuries you sustained you are not entitled to any compensation. This is generally considered to be harsh and very few states employ contributory negligence. States that have contributory negligence laws including Alabama, Maryland, North Carolina and Virginia as well as the District of Columbia.

Pure Comparative Negligence

The state you were injured in has pure comparative negligence laws. States that employ this law allow you to seek compensation irrespective of how much at fault you were. For example, say you got into a car accident and it was deemed that you were 75% at fault, you would still be able to recover damages for the remaining 25% of the accident that you were not at fault for causing. Say you sustained damages of $100,000 but were 20% at fault, you would be awarded a settlement of $80,000 in a state with pure comparative negligence laws. These damages will scale relative to how at fault you were for the injury. Currently 13 states have this form of negligence law.

Modified Comparative Negligence (50% Bar Rule)

The state you live in is one of 12 states that have a 50% bar rule as part of their modified negligence laws. This means that if you are equally to blame for the injuries you have sustained or property that has been damaged you will be unable to receive any compensation

Modified Comparative Negligence (51% Bar Rule)

You live in a state which has modified negligence laws, specifically the 51% bar rule. This means that if you are more than 50% responsible for the injuries or property damage you have sustained you will be unable to recover any damages.