Not all car accidents are entirely the fault of a single party. Crash liability is not always black and white. There are gray areas, such as when an injured victim contributes to the crash. In Texas, your own degree of fault for a car accident could diminish your payout or even bar you from recovering any financial compensation, depending on the circumstances. Make sure to consult a car accident attorney in San Antonio for legal guidance.
What Is Contributory Negligence?
“Contributory negligence” in a personal injury case refers to a legal doctrine where, if a plaintiff (injured party) commits an act that is considered a contributory factor in the harm or injury suffered, the plaintiff is barred from recovering any financial compensation from the defendant (accused party).
Contributory negligence is a strict “all-or-nothing rule” that most states have eradicated. Only four states – Alabama, North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland – still enforce contributory negligence laws. In these states, if a plaintiff is found to be even 1 percent at fault for an accident, he or she cannot recover any financial damages from other parties.
Is Texas a Contributory Negligence State?
Texas is not a contributory negligence state. Instead, it uses the more common and plaintiff-friendly comparative negligence doctrine. Texas’s law on “proportionate responsibility,” Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 33.001, states that if a claimant is assigned a percentage of fault for causing or contributing to the injury in any way, his or her monetary reimbursement will be reduced by a proportionate amount.
For example, if you get injured in an automobile accident and are assigned 10 percent of fault but the other driver is assigned 90 percent, your financial damages would be reduced by 10 percent. A $100,000 settlement in this example would be reduced to $90,000 under Texas’s comparative negligence law.
What Does “Modified” Comparative Negligence Mean?
Texas uses a “modified” comparative negligence law, not a “pure” version of this legal doctrine. This means that Texas law imposes a cap or limit on the amount of fault that can be assigned to a victim and still allow him or her to recover financial compensation. In Texas, the line is drawn at 51 percent of fault, or the majority share of liability.
If you are assigned more than 50 percent of the blame for an accident in Texas, the modified comparative negligence law bars you from recovering any financial compensation from a defendant. This limitation is not found in states with pure comparative negligence laws, such as Arizona and New Mexico.
How to Handle the Comparative Negligence Defense in Texas
There are steps you can take as an injured accident victim to avoid being blamed for your injuries. If you get involved in a car accident, for example, never admit fault or apologize to the other driver. Report an accident right away so that it can be documented for the record. Take photographs and videos while you’re still at the scene of the accident, if possible, to serve as evidence against the other party.
The potential for a diminished or barred financial recovery is why it’s important to hire a personal injury lawyer in San Antonio to help you minimize your degree of fault. An attorney can investigate your accident, search for evidence, and hire experts to help prove your case against one or more defendants. Effort from your attorney can keep your degree of fault to a minimum and maximize your payout in Texas. Contact us today for a free consultation.