The ramifications of a car or truck accident can be severe. You can be left with physical injuries that make it painful to live your normal daily life, and they can be so severe as to limit your mobility. Stack on top of that your medical expenses, rehabilitation costs, and the psychological toll taken on you and the situation can quickly become overwhelming. Even so, a personal injury lawsuit might lead to an outcome that allows you to rest easy knowing that you’ve held the responsible party accountable and that leads to the recovery of compensation to offset your losses.
But even a seemingly strong personal injury case can be susceptible to strong defenses, which is why you have to adequately anticipate and prepare to counter each of them. One of the most problematic that you may face is comparative fault. If the defense succeeds in raising this defense, then they could dramatically reduce the amount of compensation you recover, or they may be able to prevent you from recovering anything.
What can you do to mitigate comparative fault arguments?
Fortunately, the burden is on the defense to successfully argue that comparative fault exists. This means that you could have several opportunities to attack their position. This includes doing the following:
- Attacking the reliability of defense testimony: To try to prove comparative fault, the defense will rely on witness testimony, oftentimes from an expert or two. Although the words these witnesses speak might leave you concerned, you can reduce the power of their testimony by attacking credibility and reliability. This can be achieved by attacking credentials, pointing out inconsistent statements or highlighting bias. You can also present contradictory evidence that’s more dependable.
- Maximizing your showing of damages: Even if comparative fault attaches in your case, you can still ensure you receive as much compensation as possible by proving the full extent of your damages. So, be as thorough as possible in gathering evidence of your damages and tracking your losses. Also, be sure to follow your doctor’s recommendations so that you create a paper trail of your accumulated and anticipated losses.
- Being careful with what you say: The defense will put your actions and words under the microscope to try to find a way to impose comparative fault. So, if you say something that could be indicative of accepting fault, then you’ll be hard pressed to escape a comparative fault argument. As you navigate your case, then, do your best to avoid discussing your case with anyone other than your attorney. This means staying off social media, too, if possible.
- Acting in line with your injuries: There’s a chance that the defense will be watching your movements after your wreck. So, if you’re forcing yourself to engage in activities that you should probably forego, then the defense will argue that you’ve lied about your accident injuries. This can ruin your case by itself, but even if it doesn’t, it can destroy your credibility, which may lead the jury to buy into a comparative fault argument.
Don’t let comparative fault destroy your personal injury claim
If you don’t know how to deal with comparative fault arguments, then your case can be easily derailed, with the result being that you’ll be cut short of the funds needed to fully offset your losses. You can’t afford to let that sort of outcome fall on you. To protect your interests as fully as possible, then, be sure to read up on comparative fault and talk to your attorney about the best way to build your case in anticipation of the defense’s arguments.