What If Multiple Parties Are At Fault In My Personal Injury Claim?

When your personal injury occurs due to one party’s negligence, it’s complicated enough to determine fault.  You need to gather evidence, bring in witnesses, and prove that the defendants did it. But what if there were multiple parties involved? Sometimes, it’s possible for a case to have more than one defendant. This makes the claim much more complex than if you were trying to recover damages from one party. 

What If More Than One Party is at Fault?

In the case of such claims, the personal injury attorney, the defendant’s insurance company, and the court need to find out how much each party contributed to your injuries. If you or a loved one is involved in a similar situation, it’s worth looking at how the process works. 

Typically, each party responsible has to pay a percentage of the overall damages that reflects contribution. If you win the personal injury lawsuit, each party is accountable for paying their percentage of the settlement. 

Now, keep in mind that if one party isn’t able to pay their percentage of the damages, you won’t be allowed to seek compensation from other parties involved. Courts don’t hold defendants jointly responsible for damages. 

Example of a Personal Injury Claim Involving Multiple Parties

To illustrate how complex such claims can be, let’s take an example. Suppose you were in a car accident that involved three responsible parties. While driving along a busy intersection, the first party tried to beat the red light.  At the same time, the second party tried turning left as the light was about to turn red. The third party was in a rush and entered the intersection once the light turned green. 

This caused them to hit each other and lose control. Consequently, their vehicles slid into the oncoming crossing traffic lane. That’s where you were riding your motorcycle and were hit by the three vehicles during the crash. With help from a personal injury lawyer, you find out that the first party is partly at fault and liable for 50 percent of the damages. The second and third parties will pay 30 and 20 percent, respectively. After your attorney negotiates with the insurance companies involved, you’re set to receive half a million dollars in damages. 

But it isn’t as simple as this example makes it seem. Defendants are rarely ready to admit fault and pay the prescribed percentage of damages. Rather, they’ll try to shift the blame to another party. If we follow our example, the second party may claim that they had the right-of-way, implying that the first party is fully at fault. Meanwhile, the third party could say that if the first and second parties hadn’t tried beating the red light, the accident wouldn’t have occurred.  

Determining Fault in a Claim Involving Multiple Parties

This begs the question: how do you determine fault when multiple defendants are involved? To calculate how much each party needs to pay towards the final settlement, your personal injury attorney, the insurance company’s attorneys, and the court will review the exact details of the accident.  

This is important for a few reasons. When more than one party is involved, it’s possible for each person to have their own account of what happened. Since everyone has their own opinions, it’s harder to stay subjective – especially after a serious accident. 

Where it’s possible to shift the blame to another responsible party, they may do so rather than admitting fault. Similarly, each party has its own insurance company, so they’re likely to pass on the blame to avoid paying damages. To avoid a situation where everyone shifts blame, and you end up receiving a smaller settlement, you need an experienced personal injury attorney on your side. Before hiring them, ask if they’ve ever handled cases involving multiple defendants. 

Determining Negligence in a Claim Involving Multiple Parties

When narrowing down the extent to which each party’s negligence caused the accident, the court uses two key concepts: contributory and comparative negligence. 

Contributory Negligence 

This is a common legal defense that’s used by defendants in personal injury cases. When filing a claim, you need to prove that the defendant didn’t behave responsibly, which led to your injury. If the defendant argues contributory negligence and it’s proven, they can’t be held responsible for the accident if the plaintiff was also responsible for their injuries. 

Under this defense, you can’t hold the defendant responsible and claim damages if you contributed to the injury or accident. Because this defense makes it so difficult for victims to receive damages, few states still have contributory negligence rules in place.  

Comparative Negligence 

Unlike contributory negligence, this is a partial defense. Defendants use the comparative negligence argument to reduce the amount of damages they need to pay. If it’s determined that you did something to cause the accident and subsequent injuries, you can only recover partial damages. Depending on the extent to which the plaintiff caused their injuries, they may be unable to recover any damages. 

And when there are multiple parties involved, comparative negligence applies to them, too. The extent to which each party contributes to the accident is reflected through a percentage, as explained above. If you contributed to the accident mentioned in the example above and were found to be at 10 percent fault, the equation would change. 

If the first, second, and third parties are found to be at 40, 30, and 20 percent fault, respectively, and you faced damages of half a million dollars, you’d only receive $450,000. It also means that the first, second, and third parties are entitled to damages. Their damages will be reduced by their respective percentages of fault. So, the first party’s damages will be reduced by 40 percent, the second’s will be reduced by 30 percent, and the third party’s will be reduced by 20 percent.  

Since this form of comparative negligence is difficult to calculate, many states use modified comparative negligence. The main difference is that if any party is found to be at 50 percent fault, they aren’t entitled to any damages. So if we modify the example and the first party is found to be 55 percent responsible for the accident, they can’t collect anything. 

But since there’s no specific formula to arrive at these numbers, you need an experienced personal injury attorney by your side. They can help you navigate the complexities and challenges of an injury claim involving multiple defendants.