Motor Vehicle Litigation

A lawsuit is required when the liability is being contested. The defendant is entitled to respond to the complaint.

New York follows pure comparative fault rules, which means that when a jury finds you to be at fault for causing the crash the amount of damages awarded will be reduced by the percentage of negligence. This rule does not apply to owners of vehicles that are rented or leased out to minors.

Duty of Care

In a negligence case, the plaintiff must show that the defendant owed an obligation of care to them. The majority of people owe this obligation to everyone else, however those who sit behind the steering wheel of a motor vehicle accident Lawsuits vehicle have a higher obligation to the other drivers in their zone of activity. This includes not causing accidents in motor vehicles.

Courtrooms assess an individual's actions to what a typical person would do under the same circumstances to determine reasonable standards of care. This is why expert witnesses are often required when cases involve medical malpractice. People who have superior knowledge in a specific field could be held to the highest standards of care than other individuals in similar situations.

A breach of a person's duty of care can cause harm to a victim or their property. The victim has to prove that the defendant breached their duty and caused the injury or damage that they suffered. Causation is a key element of any negligence claim. It involves proving the proximate and actual causes of the damages and injuries.

If a person is stopped at an intersection it is likely that they will be struck by another vehicle. If their vehicle is damaged, they will need to pay for repairs. The reason for the crash could be a cut on bricks that later develop into a deadly infection.

Breach of Duty

A defendant's breach of duty is the second element of negligence that must be proved in order to secure compensation in a personal injury suit. A breach of duty occurs when the actions of the at-fault person are not in line with what a normal person would do under similar circumstances.

A doctor, for example is a professional with a range of professional duties towards his patients that are derived from state law and licensing bodies. Motorists owe a duty care to other motorists and pedestrians to drive safely and obey traffic laws. A driver who breaches this duty and results in an accident is responsible for the victim's injuries.

Lawyers can rely on the "reasonable person" standard to establish the existence of the duty of care and then demonstrate that the defendant failed to satisfy the standard through his actions. The jury will decide if the defendant complied with or did not meet the standard.

The plaintiff must also prove that the breach of duty by the defendant was the primary cause of the injuries. It is more difficult to prove this than a breach of duty. For example the defendant could have run a red light however, the act was not the primary cause of your bike crash. In this way, causation is often challenged by the defendants in case of a crash.

Causation

In motor vehicle accident lawyers vehicle cases, the plaintiff must establish a causal link between the defendant's breach of duty and their injuries. For example, if the plaintiff sustained neck injuries as a result of a rear-end collision the lawyer will argue that the collision was the cause of the injury. Other factors that are necessary to produce the collision, like being in a stationary vehicle are not considered to be culpable and therefore do not affect the jury's decision of the liability.

It may be harder to establish a causal relationship between a negligent act and the plaintiff's psychological problems. The fact that the plaintiff has a an uneasy childhood, a bad relationship with their parents, experimented with drugs and alcohol or experienced previous unemployment may have some influence on the severity of the psychological problems he or suffers following an accident, but courts typically consider these factors as part of the background circumstances that caused the accident in which the plaintiff resulted rather than an independent cause of the injuries.

It is essential to speak with an experienced attorney when you've been involved in a serious car accident. The attorneys at Arnold & Clifford, LLP have years of experience representing clients in personal injury cases, business and commercial litigation, and motor vehicle accident cases. Our lawyers have formed working relationships with independent doctors in a variety of specialties, as well as experts in computer simulations and accident reconstruction.

Damages

The damages a plaintiff may recover in a motor vehicle case include both economic and non-economic damages. The first type of damages is all monetary costs which can easily be added up and then calculated into a total, for example, medical expenses or lost wages, repair to property, and motor vehicle Accident lawsuits even future financial loss, such the loss of earning capacity.

New York law also recognizes the right to recover non-economic damages, Motor vehicle Accident lawsuits such as pain and suffering and loss of enjoyment of life, which cannot be reduced to a dollar amount. The damages must be proven through extensive evidence like depositions of family members or friends of the plaintiff medical records, depositions, or other expert witness testimony.

In cases where there are multiple defendants, courts typically use the comparative fault rule to determine the amount of damages to be split between them. The jury must determine the amount of fault each defendant was responsible for the accident and then divide the total damages award by that percentage of blame. New York law however, does not allow for this. 1602 specifically exempts owners of vehicles from the comparative fault rule in relation to injuries suffered by driver of these trucks and cars. The subsequent analysis of whether the presumption of permissive usage applies is complicated and typically only a clear proof that the owner specifically was not granted permission to operate the vehicle will be able to overcome it.