If you have been injured in a car accident involving 2 or more motor vehicles contact us today for a free consultation. Established in 1948, CCD Law has recovered millions of dollars in compensation for the injured in Spokane and beyond.
There might not be any complex liability issues when somebody is injured in a motor vehicle collision involving one or two vehicles, but when more than two are involved, more than one driver could be at fault. For example, you’re driving through an intersection on a green light, and a driver on your left goes through a red light and impacts with the driver’s side of your car at 35 mph. You never had an opportunity to see him to try to avoid the crash. At the same time, the driver in the car behind you was following to closely and he couldn’t stop in time to avoid a heavy impact with the rear of your car at 30 mph. Who is going to pay for your injuries and property damage?
The driver who went through the red light set off the sequence of events, and the driver behind you who was also negligent rear-ended you less than two seconds later. Now they’re pointing their fingers at each other while you’re seeking compensation for your injuries and property damage.
What if you were partially at fault too?
If you were looking at your phone while going through that intersection, and you never saw the red light runner coming at you, a judge or jury might find that you were also a partial cause of your accident and damages. This is called comparative negligence and you can read more about it here.
Not at fault? Joint and several liability
If no fault was attributable to you in the accident, joint and several liability is triggered. In the context of collecting on your judgment, it’s a significant exception to proportional sharing of damages. RCW 4.22.070(1)(b) provides that you can then collect all damages awarded to you from any defendant found to be partially at fault for the accident, regardless of the percentage of fault attributable to any other defendant. On the basis of this rule, one defendant might seem to be unfairly responsible for paying the judgments of all other defendants who were at fault. On the other hand, the rule operates to fully compensate you since you were determined to be free of fault.
Multi-vehicle accidents raise complex liability and damages issues. Nobody is going to want to compensate you for your damages, and they’re only going to squabble with each other over who should pay what percentages. The only way to draw attention to the fact that you were the victim in the crash is to retain an experienced and aggressive Spokane car accident lawyer from our firm to get the attention of everybody else involved, and get it fast.
