How Is Fault Established in Multi-Vehicle Accidents?

It’s always difficult to prove who’s at fault when there are multiple vehicles involved in an accident. There’s always a lot of moving pieces in these situations, and each driver has their own perspective, so sometimes the accounts of the accident conflict. A Las Vegas car wreck attorney will be your best ally in this situation and can help you defend yourself against unfair accusations of fault and prove what really happened.

From a Las Vegas Car Wreck Attorney: How Is Fault Established in Multi-Vehicle Accidents?

Evidence From the Scene

The most important thing for establishing fault is evidence. If you are physically able at the scene of the accident, and it is safe to do so, you want to gather as much evidence as you can. Photographs of the positions of the vehicles, road marks and conditions, and specifics of the damage to the various cars are all going to tell a story that can be used to reconstruct what happened.

If there any video cameras, whether those are dash cams or traffic cameras, these may show important perspectives that can help everyone involved understand what really took place.

Eyewitness Testimony

Eyewitness testimony is always important in a car accident, and the best eyewitness testimony comes from third-party witnesses who saw the whole thing but weren’t involved. They can provide perspectives that the individual drivers often cannot.

You may think the primary fault lies with a car that hit you, for instance, and not realize that another vehicle actually forced that car into you. You may even believe that you are entirely at fault because you don’t know what was happening around you. Firsthand accounts from witnesses can be a huge help here, and your lawyer will put the testimony together to get a comprehensive understanding of what really took place.

Police Opinion

When the police arrive, they are going to document the scene and talk to everybody. Based on their extensive experience with car accidents, they will often have an opinion on what caused the accident, once they look at the positioning of the vehicles and talk to the various people involved.

The police will make a report, and this report will be very influential in determining fault, though it is not the final word. Even though the police have an educated opinion on these matters, they were not there at the accident, and sometimes video footage or witness testimony tells a different story.

Investigation

An important reason to contact a Las Vegas car wreck attorney is to get their help in doing a thorough investigation of the accident and the drivers involved. Sometimes the evidence just isn’t clear, and when that’s the case, you have to dig deeper.

Your lawyer may have to subpoena phone records to prove that someone was distracted at the time of the accident or look at vehicle maintenance records to show that a truck was not being properly maintained. Your lawyer will also have a network of expert witnesses to call upon who can look over the evidence available and explain what happened in a way that ordinary laypeople can understand.

Who Has Liability?

Everyone on the road has a requirement to drive safely for the circumstances, follow the road rules, and refrain from driving distracted or impaired. Anyone who fails in this duty could be considered negligent, but it’s more than just showing there was a failure in the duty of care. You also have to prove that this failure caused the accident or significantly contributed to it and that this accident caused you damages. You may also have to defend your own actions. If you were negligent, you need to show that your negligence was a less serious factor than the negligence of others to avoid losing out on a lot of compensation.

It’s important to remember that more than one party can be negligent, and even parties who were not immediately involved in the accident could be held at least partially at fault. For example, if a truck’s brakes failed because the owner of the truck was not having it properly maintained, then the owner of the truck may be liable rather than the driver. 

Understanding Nevada Comparative Fault

Nevada uses a comparative fault rule that only allows a party to recover damages in an accident if they are 50% or less at fault. If they are 51% or more at fault, they can’t collect anything. However, each driver’s compensation will also be reduced by the same percentage as their fault for the accident. So if one of the drivers has damages of $15,000 but is considered to be 10% at fault, they would only be able to collect 90% of that total, or $13,500.

When you have multiple people involved, it gets tricky. There can be a single person who has most of the liability, but others may hold some. For example, the primary fault may lie with a driver who ran a red light and smashed into a car crossing the intersection legally. But if the car crossing the intersection was speeding, they may also be partially at fault. And if the car that was behind them was following too closely and thus could not brake in time, they might also bear some responsibility.

The Importance of Your Lawyer

It’s always important to have a lawyer’s help in these sorts of situations, but it’s never more important than when there are multiple parties involved in an accident. You can expect that all the insurance companies involved are going to conduct their own investigations, and these investigations may be at odds with one another.

You can also expect that each insurance company has a vested interest in minimizing the liability of the driver they cover and maximizing the liability of everyone else. Your lawyer is aware of these tricks and will work hard right from the beginning to sort through the evidence carefully to prove precisely what happened and to counter accusations of blame that are meant to minimize an insurance company’s losses at your expense.

Your lawyer will also aggressively represent you in all negotiations, take over communication with the insurance companies so that an insurance adjuster can’t manipulate or trick you into saying something that can be used against you, and even represent you in court if necessary. If there are multiple people who need compensation, your lawyer will also make sure that your claim doesn’t get lost in the shuffle. Your lawyer can also help you explore all potential sources of compensation so that you get the maximum possible.

If you’ve been in a multi-car accident, get someone fighting on your side. Contact the Hanratty Law Group in Las Vegas now for help.