Determining Fault in a Car Accident

If you want to see the natural beauty on full display in Massachusetts, driving your car through the state is arguably the best way to take it all in. You could spend the better part of a lifetime exploring the nooks and crannies of its natural wonders. The only major downside to driving the hundreds of miles of roads that make up the Bay State is that you increase your odds of getting into a car accident, even if you are an excellent driver.

Unfortunately, car accidents are a fact of life; you will likely get into one at some point. When that happens, thankfully, the car insurance system is designed to help you recover from any injuries you suffer. However, the amount of support you get after a car accident may partially depend on who was at fault. To get help determining fault in a car accident, you should contact the experienced personal injury lawyers at Cava Law Firm.

No-Fault Insurance Rules

Massachusetts is one of a dozen states that employs a no-fault car insurance system. What that means is that every driver is required to purchase a car insurance policy that includes personal injury protection (PIP). That type of policy pays for your medical bills and a portion of your lost income after a car accident, regardless of who was at fault for the crash. If your injuries after an accident are minor enough, the $8,000 policy limit of your PIP policy could very well be sufficient to pay for your expenses. But if your costs surpass that threshold, that is one of the situations where determining fault becomes important.

How Fault Affects Premiums

Whenever you file an insurance claim, your insurance company will step in to investigate and determine fault. The concern here is that it will almost certainly increase your premiums if it determines that you were at fault in the accident. If you were not at fault, your rates will, unfortunately, likely increase as well, though usually by less than if you were. These adjustments are also dependent on which insurance company you purchase your policy from.

Serious Injury Threshold

Massachusetts laws do not limit you to getting compensation exclusively from your insurance company. If you were injured seriously enough, you could seek payment from the other driver’s insurance provider by filing a third-party insurance claim or lawsuit. To qualify for these options, your medical bills must be over $2,000, or you must have suffered any of the following:

• A permanent injury;
• Serious disfigurement;
• Significant loss of sight or hearing; and
• A fractured bone.

Unsurprisingly, filing a lawsuit or a third-party insurance claim means you will need to prove who was at fault in the accident.

Determining Fault in a Car Accident

In almost all car accidents, at least one driver is at fault due to some form of negligence. In other words, even if the other driver did not intentionally cause your accident, their carelessness or recklessness directly resulted in said accident. To determine fault, your personal injury attorney will investigate the accident to gather evidence of actions (or inaction) that violate driving safety standards. For example, your lawyer would seek and collect evidence that shows that the driver was:

• Texting and driving;
• Driving while under the influence of a drug or alcohol;
• Looking away from the road for extended periods;
• Speeding;
• Changing lanes without signaling; or
• Ignoring traffic signs or signals.

If the details of the accident show that these behaviors directly resulted in the crash, then the other driver was at fault. However, it is important to note that just because the other driver was carelessly or recklessly violating traffic laws, that does not mean they were responsible for the accident. They could potentially be violating traffic laws in a way that did not result in the accident.

If you have been seriously injured in a car accident in Massachusetts, the attorneys at Cava Law Firm may be able to help you seek compensation for your injuries. Call us at (413) 737-3430 or (413) 781-CAVA (2282) today to schedule a free consultation.

When Multiple Parties Are at Fault

While it is nice to imagine that in any car accident, looking at the evidence and pointing to a single person as being responsible would be all you need to do, the real world is rarely that simple. In most car accidents, multiple drivers are partially responsible for the accidents they get into. For example, you might be speeding when another driver pulls into your lane without any warning. While the other driver is mostly responsible for the accident (because they cut you off), your speeding also contributed to it. If your case went to trial, a jury might determine that you were 20% at fault and the other driver was 80% at fault.

It is in situations like these that the comparative negligence laws in Massachusetts become relevant. According to these regulations, if you are partially responsible for the injuries that you suffered in an accident, you may still be able to get partial compensation. In the example discussed above, the jury would determine the value of your claim, but your award would only be 80% of that value. Furthermore, under Massachusetts law, you must be 50% or less responsible to be eligible to get an award when filing a lawsuit. If the jury had determined that you were more than 50% responsible for your injuries, you would not be eligible to receive any compensation.

There are also circumstances in which another party may be 100% liable for the accident yet not entirely responsible for the severity of your injuries. For example, if you were not wearing a seat belt when another driver crashed into you, a jury might determine that you are still partially responsible for your injuries. That would be particularly important if you were suing for compensation for injuries and damage to your vehicle. The jury might award you 100% of your costs to repair the car but a lesser percentage for your medical bills.

While these rules exclusively apply to awards at the end of a trial, they also effectively apply to insurance settlements. If you file a third-party insurance claim against another driver, their insurance company will investigate to determine fault. If they determine that you are 25% responsible for your injuries, any settlement will be in the amount of 75% of your expenses. As the insurance company knows that a jury would apply that same standard in court, it will not offer any more.

Pain and Suffering

Fault also matters if you are seeking pain and suffering awards from a trial or a third-party insurance claim. You will never receive compensation for pain and suffering from your insurance company; the only way you can get any such recompense is if the other party is at fault and you are injured seriously enough to bypass the state’s serious injury threshold.

How a Massachusetts Car Accident Lawyer Can Help After You Are Seriously Injured

Winning Is NO Accident!

A good car accident lawyer may make the difference between paying for a significant amount of your expenses and getting all the money you need to recover from your injuries after an accident. Experienced car crash attorneys like Christopher F. Cava and Jennifer L. Cava-Foreman will work with you during every step of the process to try to get you the highest compensation the law allows. And that work starts immediately after your accident.

After calling 911 and reporting the accident, the next thing you should do is call our law firm. Our attorneys will help you document the accident scene. Pictures of the accident, damage to the vehicles, the nearby area, and your injuries are all useful pieces of evidence that we can use to determine fault. If possible, you should also get the contact information for all witnesses to the accident and note if any nearby cameras might have recorded the accident. The fault in an accident is rarely proved with a single piece of evidence, which is why we work to gather as much as possible. In doing so, even if one or two pieces of evidence suggest that the other party was not at fault, the mountain of evidence we accumulate should overshadow that.

It is important to gather the evidence as quickly as possible. Accident scenes are usually cleared swiftly to avoid blocking traffic, and witnesses may become unavailable or forget what happened if not interviewed almost immediately. Furthermore, the statute of limitations in Massachusetts only gives you three years to file a lawsuit. That is a surprisingly short amount of time when you are recovering from serious injuries. We prefer to act swiftly and negotiate a fair settlement with the insurance company whenever possible.

Contact a Massachusetts Car Accident Lawyer Immediately

While Massachusetts is technically a no-fault insurance state, fault matters in many car accidents due to the state’s low serious injury threshold.

If you were seriously injured in a Massachusetts car accident, you need experienced lawyers to help you determine fault. Contact Cava Law Firm today at (413) 737-3430 or (413) 781-CAVA (2282) to schedule a free consultation.

Attorney Jennifer L. Cava-Foreman

Attorney Jennifer L. Cava-Foreman would like to take the guesswork out of choosing a lawyer by letting the facts and her winning verdicts speak for themselves. Attorney Cava-Foreman is known in the local courts and has firsthand experience with many types of cases ranging from personal injury to criminal defense. Attorney Cava-Foreman understands that every case and every client is different. Whether a client is injured or mixed up in a criminal matter, she will provide the legal advice needed and stand up for her client in court. [ Attorney Bio ]