Suffering a sudden serious injury can catapult an individual’s life in an unexpected direction, causing temporary or even permanent pain, suffering, and debility. Even a relatively minor injury with an anticipated full recovery can cause temporary financial hardship. A more serious injury may result in permanent life-altering adverse effects like disability or impairment.
In fault-based insurance states like Colorado, an injury victim can recover compensation for their damages from an at-fault party when someone else’s negligent, reckless, or wrongful actions cause an injury. But what if the injury victim’s actions contributed to the cause or severity of their injury? Can a person still recover compensation if they are partly at fault for their injury? Contact our Westminster personal injury lawyer for legal advice today.
Understanding Colorado’s Modified Comparative Negligence Insurance System for Injury Victims
Under a modified comparative negligence insurance system, an injury victim may still recover compensation for their damages like medical expenses, lost earnings, and pain and suffering as long as they are less than 51% at fault for the injury.
After a car accident, slip-and-fall injury, or other negligence-related injury, the insurance company investigates its policyholder’s role in the accident and what—if any—role the injury victim had in sustaining the injury. If the injury victim is less than 51% at fault, they can still recover a portion of their damages, but the insurance company subtracts their percentage of fault from the total amount of their claim.
How Does Comparative Negligence In Colorado Work?
A good example of modified comparative negligence occurs in car accident claims. If a pickup truck driver attempts to cross an intersection by speeding up under a yellow light and crosses after the light changes, they may seem 100% at fault if they have a T-bone collision with a car already in the intersection.
But what if the car was speeding when the accident occurred? The insurance company could determine that the car driver shares fault for the accident because they wouldn’t have advanced as far into the intersection if they’d adhered to the speed limit.
In the above example, the insurance company could assign the pickup truck driver 80% of the fault and the car driver 20%. In this case, the pickup truck driver cannot recover compensation for their damages but the car driver can. If the car driver’s damages add up to $100,000 they can still recover $80,000.
What to Do to Protect Yourself After an Injury In Colorado
While Colorado’s modified comparative negligence insurance system benefits injury victims in many cases because they can still recover a percentage of their total damages if they share fault, it may also incentivize the insurance company to assign an undue portion of fault to an injury victim with extensive damages to reduce the amount they have to pay on a claim. By taking certain steps at the scene of an accident or injury, you can protect yourself from this common tactic.
- First, use your phone to call 911 to report the injury and seek transportation to a hospital or urgent care center
- Then use the phone’s camera to photograph the accident scene and anything relevant to the cause of injury, such as an intersection and traffic signs after a car or truck accident, or a wet floor after a slip-and-fall accident
- Add the contact information of anyone involved in the injury and any eyewitnesses
Always seek medical care after an injury and ask for a detailed medical report. Then, save copies of all medical bills and related expenses.
By preserving evidence at the scene and taking steps to prove their economic and non-economic damages, an injury victim can recover the maximum compensation available to them even if they shared in the cause of the injury. Contact our experienced personal injury attorneys in Westminster for a free case review.