Understanding Comparative Negligence in an Illinois Personal Injury Case

 Posted on April 21, 2022 in Personal Injury

Personal injury claims deal with legal responsibility for injuries caused by negligence or wrongdoing. Injured people may be harmed by the careless actions of a property owner, trucking company, distracted driver, manufacturing company, or numerous other parties.

Through a personal injury claim, an injured person may be entitled to financial reimbursement for economic and non-economic damages. However, many injured people assume that they cannot recover compensation through an injury claim because their actions may have contributed to their own injury. Fortunately, in Illinois, injured people may still be able to recover compensation even if they were partly at fault for the injurious accident.

Shared Fault Accidents and Personal Injury Claims

Consider the following scenario: A working mother only has a few minutes to quickly shop on her lunch break. She jogs from her vehicle to the store’s entrance, tripping on a broken slab of pavement in the parking lot. The woman falls and suffers a serious back injury that requires expensive medical care.

Does the woman in this scenario have the right to pursue a personal injury claim against the store owner? In Illinois, personal injury claims are subject to a principle called “modified comparative negligence.” The law states that an injured person is prohibited from recovering compensation if he or she is 51 percent or more at fault for the injury-causing incident. The woman’s decision to quickly jog through the parking lot may have worsened her fall injuries. However, if the store owner’s failure to maintain the parking lot is found to be 51 percent or more of the cause of the accident, the woman still has a valid claim.

Shared fault is often a factor in car accident cases. Multiple parties’ actions may contribute to a severe crash. For example, one driver may have been texting and driving while the other was traveling above the speed limit.

How Does Shared Fault Influence Recoverable Damages?

If you are partly at fault for a car crash, slip and fall accident, or another type of accident, you may still be entitled to monetary damages. Illinois comparative negligence laws state that the amount of money an injured party can receive is reduced in proportion to his or her share of fault. If the woman who tripped on the parking lot defect suffers $50,000 in injury-related damages and she is considered to be 10 percent at fault for the trip and fall accident, she may still recover 90 percent of the damages, or $45,000.

Contact a Champaign Personal Injury Lawyer

If you or a loved one were in a car accident, premises liability accident, or another accident resulting in injury. Contact a Springfield personal injury attorney at Kanoski Bresney for help. We will explain all of your options for pursuing financial compensation. Call 888-826-8682 for a free, confidential consultation.

Source:

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/comparative-negligence.asp