A personal injury occurs when a person is injured in an accident caused by someone else. The wrongful party may be another person or a company. For example, a slip and fall in a Newton store would be an example of a personal injury. Another example of a personal injury is auto accident. For a personal injury to become a personal injury claim, a person must sustained injuries or property damages that requires compensation. A personal injury claim requires the help of a personal injury lawyer newton nj. However, the person injured in an accident may also be at fault for the accident. In another scenario, the wrongful party may know they are solely responsible for the accident but want to try to mitigate damages by claiming a defense. In both situations, the modified defense may be used.
What is New Jersey’s Comparative Negligence Act?
Comparative negligence is used as a defense to compare the actions of each party in a personal injury accident. This means the jury compares the wrongful party’s actions and the injured individual’s actions. If the injured person’s actions contributed to the accident, then their jury award is reduced by a percentage. Modified comparative defense is similar to comparative fault. The actions or inaction of both parties are compared to determine if the injured victim contributed to the accident. If they did not contribute, then they receive their full compensation. If they did contribute to the accident, their jury award is limited.
The “modified” part of the comparative negligence means the injured party can’t recover any money if they found more than 50 percent at fault for the accident. This means that if they were negligent for 50 percent or more of the accident, they lose all rights to the jury award. This is different than the comparative negligence defense used in New York. It doesn’t matter the amount of fault for the injured person. They still are able to receive a percentage of the jury award. Since that state practices pure comparative negligence, an injured person’s jury award is decreased by a percentage of fault such as 10, 30 or 60 percent.
Modified Comparative Negligence Should Taken Seriously
Modified comparative negligence is the difference between receiving compensation and not receiving it. If the defense does a good job of convincing the jury that the injured individual was at least 50 percent at fault, they don’t have to pay damages. Thus, the injured party is stuck paying their own medical bills, therapy bills and lost wages.
Contact a Personal Injury Lawyer about Modified Compared Negligence Defense
An injured accident victim may not be at fault for the accident. They may not know that the defense is using this claim to avoid paying them money. It’s important to hire a personal injury lawyer for legal representation. The lawyer will present a case to prove negligence on the wrongful party’s behalf and defense against the modified comparative negligence claim.