HAD AN ACCIDENT? ARE YOU AT LEAST PARTLY TO BLAME?
So, you have made a compensation claim following an accident that you believe wasn’t your fault. Your opponent has admitted fault. You think that all is now sorted out and that you will receive the full amount for your injuries, right? Not necessarily. “Contributory negligence” is a form of defence. Ordinarily, once the claim has been presented, and the Insurers have admitted fault, it then becomes a case of how much you are going to receive, rather than whether or not you are going to receive anything at all. However, once an insurer has admitted fault, the only tactic they can then use is to try and reduce the amount that they have to pay. Contributory negligence normally applies in cases where the insurers allege that the person making the claim (the Claimant) has, whether intentionally or not, “contributed” to the injuries that they have sustained. This is a perfectly valid form of defence and one which is often used to good effect.
A classic example would be a passenger in a vehicle that then collides with the rear of a stationary vehicle in front. If the passenger was not wearing a seatbelt then it would be open to the insurers to raise the issue of contributory negligence, in that they could argue that, had the seatbelt been worn, the injuries sustained may not have been as serious. In those circumstances, the injured party has “contributed” to the injuries sustained by not wearing their seatbelt. If this is successfully argued then the effect of this is that the award of compensation is reduced by a percentage.
Another example would be of an individual walking along the street, and tripping over a raised kerb or paving stone. Whilst the owners of the land could admit that they are at fault for the accident, in that the pavement was a danger, and they do not have a reasonable system of inspection and repair in place, 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 landowners successfully alleged contributory negligence at 25%, the award would then be reduced to £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.
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