Accidents in Kentucky, such as car collisions, are often the cause of disputes over who should be held to blame. Injured victims deserve to earn support for their injuries from at-fault individuals. But what if you’re in a traffic accident and there are several drivers at fault for your accident? What if you also share partial blame for the accident?
How these issues of fault get sorted out can greatly affect the amount of compensation you receive to pay your medical bills and get your life back on track.
What Is Several Only Liability in Kentucky?
After a car accident, if the percentage of fault can’t be agreed upon between involved parties, a judge and jury are called upon to determine who shares the blame and how much of it. The parties are only responsible for their own percentage of negligence.
This legal doctrine is known as “Several Only Liability.” The guilty parties only pay for the portion of the accident they were found liable for. Motorists involved in a crash would accept a percentage of the blame, and then their chosen insurance providers would usually provide their share of compensation to the injured parties.
Joint and Several Liability No Longer in Use in Kentucky
To understand how several only liability came to be in use, it’s important to look at how Kentucky used to do things. The state used to follow the “joint and several-liability” doctrine. This way of thinking held that everyone involved in causing your accident and injury could be sued for the entire judgment.
This meant that even someone who played only a very minor role in your accident could be sued for the entire amount of your damages. It was often up to defendants to pay up and then to file claims against each other to work out percentages of fault to get reimbursement.
“Joint and several liability,” still used in several states, is meant to protect victims in case the person bearing the most blame in an accident had very limited car accident coverage or none at all. The victim would still be able to earn support from the rest of the at-fault parties in order to recover and move on.
Comparative Negligence in Kentucky
Because Kentucky is also a “pure comparative negligence” state, the percentage of blame assigned to negligent parties can go anywhere from zero to one hundred. You could be 99% to blame for an accident that hurt you. Yet, if the other driver is found 1% responsible for what happened, his or her insurance provider would have to cover 1% of the damages you suffered.
Comparative negligence applies to more than just car accidents on Kentucky streets and interstates. Multiple parties can share blame in premises liability accidents, such as slip-and-fall incidents. The law governs product liability cases, workplace accidents and applies in many other personal injury cases.
What Can I Earn Compensation For After an Accident
When determining percentages of liability among guilty parties, a court will be deciding who covers the many hardships a victim endures after an injury. These awards can apply to economic, physical, and emotional damages.
Here’s just a partial list of the damages that can be reimbursed and compensated for injured victims:
- Medical bills already received and those expected in the future.
- Future rehabilitation and physical therapy.
- The expense of dealing with a permanent disability over a lifetime.
- Property Damage.
- The loss of income while missing work and work that may be missed in the future.
- Extreme mental and physical anguish.
- Loss of consortium. The loss of intimacy with a spouse or partner.
Earning proper compensation for every loss a victim endures is vitally important. If this chance is missed, victims can end up paying for economic damages out of their own pocket.
Contact a Kentucky Personal Injury Lawyer
If you or a loved one has been seriously hurt in an accident of any kind please contact the law offices of Kaufman & Stigger, PLLC. Our skilled Kentucky personal injury lawyers can quickly determine who should be held responsible for your injury. We work hard to earn the compensation you’ll need to allow you to return to your normal life.
The attorneys at Kaufman & Stigger, PLLC, have a combined 100 years of experience in helping clients and their families get compensation to rebuild their lives. To discuss your case in a free consultation contact Kaufman & Stigger, PLLC, today.
