A lot of the focus during a personal injury case is on imposing liability and demonstrating the extent of damages suffered. These are certainly important aspects of a car accident claim, and you can’t succeed without successfully proving both of those aspects of your case. Yet, there’s much more to your personal injury claim that proving that the other side was to blame for the accident and that you were hurt as a result. In fact, before taking your case to trial, you might need to be prepared to play some defense. Here’s why.
Louisiana’s comparative fault law
Louisiana recognizes comparative fault laws when it comes to personal injury claims. That means that any recovery you receive from a personal injury claim can be reduced by the percentage of fault allocated to you. If you are awarded $50,000, for example, but are deemed to have been 40% at fault, then you’ll actually only recover $30,000. This means that your allocation of fault could have a profound impact on your ability to truly recoup your losses, which can directly affect the medical care you receive.
What should you do about comparative fault?
As mentioned above, you need to be prepared to play a little bit of defense, even though you still need to focus on imposing liability. You’ll want to closely examine the facts of your case to anticipate the arguments that will be made by the other side, then develop strategies to counter those arguments. These issues might be hard to identify at first, but that’s where an experienced attorney might be able to help.
Develop a robust and holistic case
The comparative fault law makes one thing clear: your case needs to be holistic and well thought out. You can’t leave any stone unturned. Instead, you need to anticipate every argument and have strong arguments based on the law to support your position. A legal team that is experienced in this area of the law will know how to help you do just that.