In most states, the biggest hurdle to clear in a car accident claim is proving the other driver was negligent and the majority at fault for the crash. But in Virginia, there’s another hurdle: proving the injured driver played absolutely no role in his or her crash—especially if they were initially assigned even a small share of blame.
Because Virginia uses a contributory negligence system of fault, drivers who are assigned even 1% of fault for speeding, failing to signal, or having a brake light out can’t receive any compensation after a crash. However, fault assigned at the accident scene by police isn’t always accurate or even relevant.
For example, a driver with a brake light out who was hit head-on shouldn’t be assigned any fault for the crash if that was the only violation the responding police officer found them to have committed, because it had no role in the crash. Unfortunately, this type of situation still happens.
No matter how injured drivers are, they can’t get money for their medical bills and lost wages if the accident report notes they did anything, no matter how minor, to even potentially contribute to the crash.
At Lowell Stanley Injury Lawyers, we deal with this scenario every day. Not only do we work hard to prove at-fault drivers’ negligence caused their crashes, but we also find evidence to help reduce our clients’ level of fault to zero. If you were recently injured in a crash that wasn’t your fault, we want to help. Contact our Virginia car accident lawyers today for a free consultation.
