There are some car crash and personal injury cases that are worth pursing even if the injured party caused or contributed to the fault. This blog post discusses damages and percent of fault in relation to when it makes financial sense to file a lawsuit. Each and every case is different, but this provides a general overview.
Kentucky Law allows the Plaintiff aka injured person to recover for a percent of fault. This can be as small as 1% fault. Damages including pain and suffering, medical expenses, lost wages, impairment, and punitive damages come into play when a personal injury lawyer like myself evaluates your case. It boils down to a fault versus damages assessment. I include risk and chances of success as well.
What Will A Jury Do On A Personal Injury Case?
When a jury hears a case they determine the percentage of fault to allocate to each party. On a rear end car crash case that is relatively easy. 100% is normally attributed to the vehicle that did the rear ending. However, if the other side is contesting liability a jury sometimes determines percentages. On a slip and fall case that could mean saying the landowner is X amount at fault for allowing the problem on their property and the client is Y amount at fault for not paying attention.
If the Plaintiff (aka injured party) is a large percentage at fault or responsible for the incident and is minimally hurt it does not make financial sense to pursue the case. Alternatively, if the client is seriously injured than spending money litigating can make sense. Here are two examples:
Fault and Damages
Example 1: Client is 90 percent at fault and has soft tissue injuries. Maybe a jury awards $10,000.00… then the Plaintiff takes $1,000.00 once the percent is applied. If litigation costs are $5,000.00 than the lawyer loses $4,000.00 litigating that case. It does not make sense to pursue. I’m not saying this is “fair” or right but to ask a lawyer to lose money is not a sustainable endeavor.
Example 2: Client is 90 percent at fault with multiple surgeries and hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical expenses. For pain and suffering maybe a jury awards $500,000.00. Ten percent of 500K is 50K. Spending $5,000.00 to litigate and recover $50,000.00 can make financial sense depending on the case.
Medical Malpractice Case Evaluation
I also have people call me for medical malpractice cases with damages of $25,000.00 or so and the doctor is VERY much in the wrong. The problem is the costs of experts on a medical malpractice case can exceed hundreds of thousands of dollars. Hiring a $25,000.00 expert to recover $25,000.00 after a few years worth of work is not financially intelligent.
Compare with a case with limited liability and terrible damages. Think death or paralysis. These cases are sometimes financially viable to pursue. For more information: https://louisville-injury-lawyer.com/service/medical-malpractice/ and https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2628513/
Each and every case is different. For an honest and prompt evaluation contact bdettman@dettmanlawgroup.com. You might not always like my opinion, but it will be truthful and honest. I help people when I can and do my best on every case.
