Posted on Monday, May 22nd, 2017 at 2:56 am
According to information provided by the Northern California Record, a passenger in an Uber vehicle has filed a lawsuit in San Francisco County for damages sustained in a car wreck. The complaint alleges the Uber passenger sustained injuries when the Uber driver and another driver entered an intersection at the same time causing a collision. The crash occurred at the intersection of Delores Street and 29th Street.
California is a Fault State
California is a fault state for insurance claims and personal injury claims. This means that you must prove another party was “at fault” or caused the crash to be eligible to receive compensation from that party. For example, if another vehicle turns left in front of you when you had the green light, the driver of that vehicle would be “at fault” because his failure to yield the right of way caused the collision. Therefore, you would be entitled to receive compensation for your injuries, damages, and losses.
An exception is if you are partially at fault for the crash. Under California’s comparative negligence laws, your compensation can be reduced by the percentage of fault for the accident assigned to you. In the above example, if you were speeding at the time of the collision, a jury may say that you were 20 percent at fault for the crash. Therefore, any recovery would be reduced by 20 percent.
Passengers in Car Accidents
In most cases, a passenger does not need to worry about comparative negligence claims because a passenger had no control over what occurred. He was simply an innocent victim of the accident.
A passenger must look to the negligent driver that caused the accident for compensation. Because of comparative negligence, a passenger may have an injury claim against one or more parties, depending on the circumstances surrounding the collision.
For example, if you had a passenger in your vehicle in the above example, the passenger could hold you and the other driver responsible for his or her injuries because you and the other drive were both at fault. In this case, the passenger could collect compensation from each driver up to the percentage of fault assigned to that driver. When more than one party is liable for damages, it can benefit the passenger because there is more insurance coverage available compared to a case which has only one liable party.
Hiring a Sacramento Car Accident Attorney?
When you are injured in a car accident, it is important that you prove the other driver or another party was 100 percent at fault for the crash. Anything less than 100 percent can reduce the amount of compensation you receive for your damages. Therefore, hiring an experienced Sacramento car accident attorney is in your best interest. The insurance company for the other driver will try to blame you for the wreck to lower your compensation. Our attorneys have experience fighting insurance companies with hard evidence that we discover during a thorough accident investigation.
For a free consultation and case evaluation, call The Tiemann Law Firm at (916) 999-9000 or visit our website. Our law firm serves clients in Sacramento, Folsom, Roseville, El Dorado Hills and other communities in the greater Sacramento area.
