Serving The Injured In New York And Pennsylvania

What to do if the defense says you’re to blame for your wreck

On Behalf of | Jan 21, 2025 | Personal Injury

After being injured in a wreck, you need compensation to offset your lost wages, pay for your medical expenses and cover your rehabilitation costs. You should also seek out financial resources for the pain and suffering, lost enjoyment of life and mental anguish that you’ve experienced. But as you navigate your claim, the financial resources that you seek may be jeopardized by the defense’s arguments that you contributed to the wreck in question.

How to address comparative negligence arguments in your car accident case

Under comparative negligence, the amount of money you recover from your car accident case can be reduced by the amount of fault assigned to you. Therefore, if the defense is successful in demonstrating comparative fault, then you could lose out on a lot of compensation, leaving you in a bind as you navigate your recovery.

You don’t want that to happen. So, as you proceed with your claim, be sure to do the following:

  • Carefully analyze the role that you played in your accident so that you know what arguments to expect and how to counter them.
  • See if there’s a way to attack the reliability of the defense’s witnesses.
  • Put your actions in context of the bigger picture, thereby appropriately comparing them to the defendant’s actions.
  • Identify experts who may be able to help support your claim and minimize how your actions contributed to the wreck.

By doing these things, you’ll hopefully frame your case correctly, thereby diminishing the possibility of a comparative negligence finding from derailing your case.

Aggressively advocate for the compensation you need and deserve

Navigating the personal injury claims process can be incredibly stressful given the stakes involved. But there are concrete steps that you can take now to build your case and increase your chances of obtaining a favorable outcome. To learn more about how to do that, please continue reading our blog.