Have you suffered an accident resulting in injuries which would not have occurred “but for” the fault of someone else? If you have, you may have a claim; but what happens if you are partially at fault for the accident or have done something that has contributed to making your injuries worse?
Here is a little insight in to how it can affect your claim if someone else is at fault, but you are partially to blame in some way as well.
Perhaps you have been driving a car when another vehicle has pulled out and crashed into the side of you – if you were not wearing a seatbelt, you may have suffered severe injuries which would not have been as severe had you have been wearing a seatbelt at the time of your accident; something that is compulsory by law in most circumstances. In this scenario, the insurers liable for the claim may allege contributory negligence as a result of you not wearing a seatbelt.
Another example of contributory negligence could be failing to wear a helmet as a cyclist or motorcyclist and being hit by another vehicle. If you sustain head injuries, it’s likely the insurers will allege you have been negligent in not wearing a helmet. You could have been asked to wear a helmet in a workplace and have carried out a task where an object has landed on your head resulting in you suffering injuries. Again, there may be a claim for the object falling on you but not wearing a helmet when you should have done may be considered in the claim.
The above scenarios are examples of contributory negligence, governed by the Contributory Negligence Act, which states:
“the jury shall determine the total damages which would have been recoverable if the claimant had not been at fault and the extent to which those damages are to be reduced.
The courts will take into account the total damages which would have been awarded to the victim if they had not contributed to the accident”.
What this normally results in is having a reduced payout. You can still make a claim for personal injury compensation, but you will probably have a percentage of it reduced to take in to account the contributory negligence on your part.
As an example, you may receive 20% less than your total payout to reflect your contributory negligence.
Insurers will go nuts for trying to reduce the payout as much as they can, so we can fight to make sure that any genuine deductions you face are as small as possible.
