Anyone who has ever been in a car accident knows how terrifying it can be. Being in one can cause quite a bit of physical and emotional stress. It can be traumatic to deal with. With any personal injury case, determining who the liable party is important because it is a big factor in proving the responsible person.
It is a smart move to brush up your knowledge about how the liable party in a car accident is decided so that if you are one, you will know what to do. A Sandy Car accident lawyer can help you.
Understanding ‘’Fault’’
Fault in common parlance is different from the kind of value that is attached to the word in legalese. The thing is, when a car accident occurs, it may not require a lot of brains to find out who was at fault. For instance, if it is a rear-end collision, you can easily prove that it was the other driver that was at fault.
But in some cases, things may be a bit more complicated leading insurance companies and authorities to have to determine who was at fault in a car accident.
What Insurance Companies Do to Determine Liability
First, an insurance adjuster gets assigned to handle a car accident. They will conduct an investigation that is going to happen by them talking to eyewitnesses and going to the accident site itself. They are going to find out medical reports of the injuries that happened due to the accident and also assess the damage to the vehicle that was in the accident.
After all, this is done, the legal aspects of negligence will be put by the state’s requirements and their liability will be determined.
What Cops Do to Determine Liability
After a car accident gets reported to the cops, someone will be sent over to look at the site. The job will be to gather all the evidence they can and file a report. Often, insurance companies need this police report to start the claims process.
There are many things the police investigator is going to do to determine liability. They are going to talk to eyewitnesses, take photographs, gather all details, and more to find out exactly what happened. From all the information gathered, the police are going to draw put a scenario to determine the liable party in the accident.
3 Tenets of Fault in Car Accidents
In a car accident, here are the 3 tenets of fault that should be determined:
- Negligence: This is a case where the driver does not show minimum care and attention which causes others’ property, meaning a vehicle, to be damaged.
- Intentional Misconduct: These are cases where there was an intention in the misconduct. For example, a wife can try to run over her husband after a serious fight.
- Recklessness: Irrespective of the welfare of others is the basis for such cases.
Understanding liability in a car accident case may take some legal knowledge and it is best to let a lawyer help you.
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