If you receive an injury because of another party’s negligence, you can likely file a lawsuit and secure some form of compensation. As you are building your case, it is essential that you understand negligence laws and how these can affect the payment you will potentially receive.
Different states, different laws
Building a solid negligence case is generally about establishing that one party failed to exercise reasonable care and directly or indirectly caused your injury. The matter is usually straightforward when only one party is at fault, but it becomes less simple when both parties share negligence.
States have fairly similar negligence statutes, but there are differences in how they treat shared negligence. These differences often affect how much compensation the injured party might receive, if any. For instance, injured parties in certain states might not recover compensation if they are partly responsible for their injury, no matter how small their contribution. This is the general idea behind the doctrine of contributory negligence.
New York’s comparative negligence laws
The state of New York follows the doctrine of comparative negligence, which allows the injured party to recover compensation if they are not entirely at fault for their injury. However, their compensation might be lower depending on how much their own negligence contributed to the accident. For example, you may recover compensation if a truck hits your car, but the amount will decrease if authorities find that you were driving above the speed limit.
Negligence laws are complex and often challenging to navigate. An experienced personal injury attorney can help you build a solid case, fight for your rights and achieve a favorable outcome.