What Happens If You Are Partly at Fault for Your Accident in Tennessee?

What happens if you are partly at fault for your accident in Tennessee depends on your percentage of responsibility. You can get compensation for your injuries as long as you are less than 50% responsible, but your compensation goes down by your share of fault.

Are you out of luck if you think you are more than 50% responsible? Not necessarily. What you believe happened might not be what actually happened. Car accidents rarely involve only one mistake. For example, if you think the accident was your fault because you were speeding, you might not be aware of possible other factors pointing to the other driver having significant responsibility. Maybe the other driver was under the influence or speeding more than you were. Assessing fault usually requires multiple sources of evidence and careful investigation. A personal injury lawyer may be able to work with you to support claims of a lower fault percentage.

How common is it to be partly at fault?

It is pretty common to share fault in car crashes, but the fault percentages can vary wildly. Being partly at fault may mean you are 10% at fault or 90% at fault.

Crashes often do not happen from one single perfect chain of events, so the reality is that many insurance claims do involve some level of comparative fault. Here are some scenarios in which shared fault could apply.

• Rear-end crashes: The driver in the front (the lead driver) could be assigned some percentage of fault if they suddenly slammed on their brakes, had nonworking brake lights, or simply stopped in the middle of the road.
• Left-turn collisions: Drivers who make left turns typically have responsibility. An oncoming driver could share in the fault, though, if they ran a red light, were speeding, or were distracted.
• Multi-vehicle crashes: When crashes involve more than two vehicles, the actions of several drivers may have contributed.

What to know about the modified comparative negligence system Tennessee follows

Even if you share fault, you may still be able to receive compensation for medical bills, future medical care, pain and suffering, and much more. Under Tennessee’s modified comparative negligence principles, you can get compensation if you are 0% to less than 50% at fault. Recovering damages is not possible if you are 50% or more at fault. Small changes in your fault allotment can have a huge effect on your case.

• 10% fault reduces your damages a bit
• 40% fault reduces your damages by quite a bit (but your compensation could still be substantial, depending on the particulars of your case)
• 50% fault means you have no claim

Just one or two pieces of evidence can mean the difference between, say, 10% and 40% fault and many thousands of dollars. Not surprisingly, insurance companies often try to push injured drivers above the 50% threshold. Even being 40% at fault versus 49% at fault can mean getting valuable compensation you would otherwise not receive.

How do insurance companies assign fault?

In most car accidents, a jury does not determine fault. Most cases settle before trial. However, insurance companies estimate liability during settlement negotiations. If a case goes to trial, a jury usually makes the final determination of fault (or the judge does if the case is tried without a jury).

To estimate liability, insurance adjusters examine factors such as vehicle black box data, accident photos, police reports, and video footage. They may determine that one driver is mostly responsible, but that the other driver played a minor part in the accident. In such a scenario, one driver might get 80% responsibility and the other driver 20%. The insurer may adjust a settlement offer to reflect its estimate of fault percentage. A claim may have a $100,000 value, and the adjuster might then offer about $80,000.

Beware if insurance companies say you’re partially at fault and won’t get much. Being partly at fault can mean your damages going down by just 5% or 10% if your responsibility is minimal. Treat early settlement offers with caution. They may underestimate the full value of your damages, for example, not completely accounting for long-term medical care and ongoing pain.

What if you disagree with the insurance company?

Insurers want to reduce the amount they pay. They may claim you are 10% or 20% at fault when you really share 0% fault, or they may say you’re more than 50% responsible when you are not.

Many claims an insurer makes may lack evidence. Your car accident lawyer might be able to counteract false allegations of fault with other types of evidence or by demanding proof of certain claims.

• Police reports: These usually contain statements from the involved drivers, any witnesses, diagrams of the scene, and traffic violations.
• Physical evidence: Skid marks, car damage, vehicle debris, and road conditions help determine how a crash happened.
• Video footage: Dashcams, traffic cameras, witness recordings, doorbell cams, and business cameras could counteract insurance claims.
• Black box data: This could show a driver was going 50 mph, not 30 mph, as an insurance adjuster claimed.

What if you said “I’m sorry” or “It was my fault” at the scene?

These types of statements can complicate the case, but do not automatically shut off your legal options. Legally speaking, what matters more is the actual causes of the crash. That doesn’t stop insurers from trying to use such statements against you, but these types of statements would be only one piece of evidence.

It is common to think you share more fault than you actually do. After all, you know most (if not all) of your own side. You may know if you were speeding and by how much, if you glanced at your phone, or if you forgot to signal before changing lanes. These actions do not exist in a vacuum, though. What the other driver did (or did not do) could mean that your portion of fault is relatively small.

Contact Delius, McKenzie & McCarter

What happens if you are partly at fault in a Tennessee car accident? Each case is different. Contact us today to talk about your situation.