ARE YOU PARTLY TO BLAME FOR YOUR ACCIDENT?
You have made a compensation claim following an accident. Your Opponent has admitted that they were at fault. Therefore, you think everything is fine and that you will now receive the full amount of compensation for your injuries, right? Not necessarily. It may be that your opponent will argue that you were partly to blame for your own accident. This is called contributory negligence. In other words that you have contributed to your injuries.
A classic example of such an argument arising would be against a passenger in a vehicle, which then collides with the rear of a stationary car in front. If the passenger was not wearing a seatbelt, then it would be open to the opponent to raise the issue of contributory negligence. They would argue that had the seatbelt been worn then the injuries sustained may not have been as serious and, therefore, the injured party has “contributed” to the injuries sustained by not wearing their seatbelt. The effect of this is that the award of compensation would then be reduced by a percentage to reflect this.
Another example would be of an individual walking along the street, and tripping over a raised kerb or paving stone. Whilst the Council could well admit fault for the accident, in that the pavement was a danger, and the accident was therefore their fault, they could then raise the issue of contributory negligence in that the raised paving or kerb stone was there to be seen, and, had the individual been paying more attention to where they were walking, they would have seen the danger and taken steps to avoid it. Again, if this argument were successful the individual’s award would be reduced accordingly. For example, if the claim was worth £2,000.00, and the opponent successfully alleged contributory negligence at 25%, the award would then be reduced to the sum of £1,500.00.
So remember that whilst the fault may well rest with the other party involved, it is possible that your own actions, or in some cases lack of them, may well have a direct effect upon the amount of compensation you receive.
Simon Taggart - 2009
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