How Is Comparative Negligence Referred To In Slip And Fall Accidents?

Video Transcript

What Does “Comparative Negligence” Refer To In Slip And Fall Accidents?

Comparative negligence refers to the concept that involves addressing the situation where more than one party may be at fault for the accident. Even if the property owner was negligent and caused the accident, there may be partial responsibility or fault on the part of the victim or others as well, which gave rise to the accident.

When there is an accident, and the case goes to trial, the jury will use 100 percentage points to decide who is at fault for the accident. It will be up to the jury, under the law given by a judge and the evidence heard during a trial, to determine out of that 100 percentage points which party or parties, including the plaintiff, bears responsibility.

All parties must take responsibility under the law when determining who is at fault for an accident that occurs, whether it is walking, going down steps or driving a car.

A jury might find that although the defendant is responsible for the accident, so is the plaintiff. Therefore, comparative negligence can diminish the amount of damages the defendant must pay under the law.

This can occur as follows:

Say your injuries have a value of $100,000, and the jury finds that the defendant is 50% responsible and that you as the plaintiff were 50% responsible for the happening of the accident because you were not watching where you were walking. Then the $100,000 reward will be reduced by 50% due to your own comparative negligence by $50,000. Even though the jury may have awarded you or assigned $100,000 as a value because of your injuries, the court will automatically cut the award in half because the same jury found you 50% at fault for the happening of the accident as well.

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