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Children Injured in Car Accidents
Child Accidents including: Pedestrian, School, Burns, Sports & Falls
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Child Accidents including: Pedestrian, School, Burns, Sports & Falls
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Children Injured in Car Accidents
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Child Accidents including: Pedestrian, School, Burns, Sports & Falls
Children Injured in Car Accidents
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Children Injured in Car Accidents
Children's Medical Malpractice
Child Accidents including: Pedestrian, School, Burns, Sports & Falls
Contributory Negligence
Connecticut has a law that states that if a jury finds that the person who injured you was negligent, that any award that is made for compensation can be reduced by the percentage of negligence that a jury finds attributable to the person injured. What this means in plain language is that if a jury finds that you contributed in some way to your injuries that jury can reduce your award. The amount of the reduction is based upon a percentage. Importantly, if your negligence is greater than the negligence of the person who injured you, then you cannot recover any damages. Here are some examples:If you are stopped at a red light, and someone runs into your car from behind it is likely that a jury will find that person negligent. The person who hit you may not have been paying attention or may have been following too closely. You may have done nothing wrong. Your car was simply stopped at the intersection. In this example, the person who hit you is 100% negligent and if you are awarded money your award will not be reduced.
However, in a case where you are traveling above the speed limit, and a person turns left in front of your car, a jury may find the person who turned left negligent, but may also find you responsible for traveling too fast. If a jury found that your conduct was 30% responsible for the accident, the jury would reduce any award to you by 30%. So that if an award was made of $10,000, it would be reduced by $3,000.
However, if a jury found that your speed was more than 50% (say 51%), responsible for the accident, then your award is not reduced. You are not allowed any compensation at all.
This is known as the law of Contributory Negligence.
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Tony Sheffy | Sheffy, Mazzaccaro, DePaolo & DeNigris, LLP
166 North Main Street
Southington, CT 06489
Phone: 860-620-9460
Fax: 860-620-9348
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