Motor Vehicle Litigation

A lawsuit is required when the liability is being contested. The defendant then has the chance to respond to the complaint.

New York has a pure comparative negligence rule. This means that if a jury finds you to be at fault for an accident, your damages will be reduced based on your percentage of blame. There is one exception to this rule: CPLR SS 1602 excludes owners of vehicles rented or leased by minors.

Duty of Care

In a lawsuit for negligence the plaintiff must show that the defendant owed them a duty to act with reasonable care. This duty is due to all people, however those who operate vehicles owe an even higher duty to other drivers in their field. This includes ensuring that they do not cause car accidents.

Courtrooms evaluate an individual's behavior to what a typical person would do under the same circumstances to determine reasonable standards of care. In the event of medical negligence experts are typically required. Experts with a higher level of expertise in a specific field could be held to the highest standards of care than others in similar situations.

If a person violates their duty of care, it can cause injury to the victim or their property. The victim is then required to show that the defendant's infringement of their duty led to the injury and damages that they suffered. Causation is a crucial element of any negligence claim. It requires proof of both the proximate and real causes of the damages and injuries.

For instance, if a person has a red light and is stopped, they'll be hit by a vehicle. If their vehicle is damaged, they will be responsible for repairs. The actual cause of an accident could be a brick cut which develops into an infection.

Breach of Duty

A breach of duty by a defendant is the second aspect of negligence that has to be proven to win compensation in a personal injury suit. A breach of duty is when the actions of the at-fault person are not in line with what an ordinary person would do under similar circumstances.

For instance, a doctor is a professional with a range of professional obligations towards his patients that are derived from state law and licensing bodies. Motorists are required to show care to other motorists and pedestrians to drive safely and obey traffic laws. Drivers who violate this duty and creates an accident is accountable for the injuries of the victim.

Lawyers can rely on the "reasonable person" standard to establish the existence of the duty of care and then prove that the defendant did not meet the standard in his actions. The jury will decide if the defendant fulfilled or did not meet the standard.

The plaintiff must also demonstrate that the breach by the defendant was the primary cause of the plaintiff's injuries. This can be more difficult to prove than the existence of a duty and breach. For instance the defendant could have run a red light but his or her action wasn't the main cause of your bicycle crash. Because of this, causation is often challenged by the defendants in cases of crash.

Causation

In motor vehicle cases the plaintiff must prove that there is a causal connection between the breach by the defendant and their injuries. If a plaintiff suffers a neck injury in a rear-end accident then his or her attorney will argue that the incident was the reason for the injury. Other factors that are needed to produce the collision, like being in a stationary car, are not culpable and do not affect the jury's determination of liability.

It can be difficult to prove a causal link between a negligent act and the psychological issues of the plaintiff. The fact that the plaintiff suffered from a an unhappy childhood, a poor relationship with their parents, used alcohol and drugs or had previous unemployment may have some influence on the severity of the psychological issues she suffers after a crash, but the courts typically consider these factors as an element of the background conditions that caused the accident arose rather than an independent cause of the injuries.

It is important to consult an experienced attorney in the event that you've been involved in a serious motor accident. Arnold & Clifford LLP attorneys have years of experience representing clients in motor vehicle accident, commercial and business litigation, as well as personal injury cases. Our lawyers have established working relationships with independent medical professionals with a variety of specialties and expert witnesses in accident reconstruction and computer simulations as well with private investigators.

Damages

The damages a plaintiff can recover in a motor vehicle accident attorney vehicle lawsuit include both economic and non-economic damages. The first category of damages includes any monetary costs that can easily be added up and calculated as a total, for example, medical expenses, lost wages, property repair, Motor Vehicle Accident Attorney and even future financial losses, like a diminished earning capacity.

New York law recognizes that non-economic damages like suffering and pain, and loss of enjoyment, cannot be reduced to money. However these damages must be proven to exist using extensive evidence, including deposition testimony from plaintiff's close friends and family members medical records, as well as other expert witness testimony.

In the event of multiple defendants, courts will typically use the comparative fault rule to determine the amount of total damages that must be divided between them. The jury will determine the proportion of fault each defendant is accountable for the incident and then divide the total damages awarded by the percentage. New York law however, does not permit this. 1602 disqualifies vehicle owners from the comparative negligence rule in the event of injuries sustained by drivers of trucks or cars. The method of determining if the presumption of permissiveness is complicated. In general, only a clear demonstration that the owner denied permission to the driver to operate the vehicle will be able to overcome the presumption.