Brentwood Personal Injury Attorney
We are all required to use a certain degree of care in our day-to-day lives and most of us attempt to do so. Unfortunately, even a momentary lapse in attention can have serious consequences for others, who could suffer serious injuries as a result. Fortunately, injured parties are often able to recover compensation from the at-fault parties who caused their accident, so if you were hurt because of someone else’s negligence, it is important to contact an experienced Brentwood personal injury attorney who can help you file a claim.
Types of Personal Injury Cases
Unfortunately, there are countless ways that people can hurt each other, even accidentally. At Beal | Crutcher, our dedicated team of Brentwood personal injury attorneys has experience handling a wide range of these kinds of cases, including those based on:
- Car and truck accidents;
- Slip and fall accidents and other premises liability claims;
- Bicycle and pedestrian accidents;
- Defective consumer products;
- Medical negligence; and
- Dog bites and animal attacks.
What an injured party needs to prove in order to recover when filing a personal injury claim based on one of these kinds of accidents will depend on the nature of the claim and the specific circumstances of the case. In some instances, for instance, a dog owner can be held strictly liable if his or her animal causes someone else to suffer an injury, which means that the injured party won’t be required to prove negligence. Those injured in car accidents, on the other hand, will need to prove that someone else’s lack of care was the cause of a collision in order to recover damages.
Modified Comparative Negligence
Fortunately, just because a person contributed to his or her own accident in some way does not mean that he or she will be barred from recovery in every case. This is because Tennessee adheres to the standard of comparative negligence, which means that everyone is held accountable for their own degree of negligence in causing an accident. If, for instance, a car accident victim suffered $100,000 in damages, but is found by a jury to be ten percent at fault for a crash, he or she can still recover damages, albeit in an amount that is equal to his or her degree of fault in causing the accident. In this case, the injured party could still recover $90,000 from the person who was primarily at fault for the crash ($100,000 minus ten percent).
The only exception to this rule applies in cases where a person is deemed to be 50 percent or more at fault for an accident. In these cases, courts will follow a modified comparative negligence rule, which states that accident victims who are more than 49 percent at fault for an accident will be barred from recovery.
Contact a Brentwood Personal Injury Lawyer to File a Negligence Claim
Proving that someone else was at fault for an accident can be complicated and often requires a thorough investigation into the cause of an accident. For help seeking compensation for your own accident-related injuries, please contact the dedicated Brentwood personal injury lawyers at Beal | Crutcher by calling 615-861-2304 today.
