The insurance company may be telling you that they either won't pay or they won't pay what's fair because they are claiming you are "comparatively negligent". This means that they are claiming you were partially at fault. In other words, they are saying you did someting unsafe, or "negligent", which was a cause of your injury.
For example, you fail to see a hole or defect in the floor in a store and fall. The store's insurance company may argue that you weren't looking and should have seen the hole or defect.
In Pennsylvania, an injured person can not recover if his or her negligence is greater than the negligence of the defendant or defendants against whom the recovery is being sought. (42 Pa CS Section 7102). If a court found your negligence to be more than 50% of the cause of the cause, then you would not be able to recover any damages. As long as the defendant was at least 50% at fault, you could recover damages, but your damages would be reduced by the amount you are found to be "comparatively negligent". For example, if a jury or judge found that you were 25% comparatively negiglent and the defendant was 75% at fault, the jury (or judge if in a non-jury trial) would then have to decide the dollar amount. Say, the damages were found to be $40,000. They would then be reduced by the percentage of comparative negligence (25%) for a net of $30,000.
If you would like more information, or have a question, feel free to contact us.
David Schreiber
Of Counsel
Law Offices of Thomas Wolpert, PC
(610) 792-3304
http://www.PAinjurycase.com
No comments:
Post a Comment