PA Car Accident Law: The Comparative Negligence

Are you planning to migrate in Pennsylvania? Well if you are, here’s a useful fact you must know and keep in mind. 

Pennsylvania is covered with “no fault" and "at fault" system. The "no fault" system applies to medical expenses and lost wages, so each insured looks to his/her own automobile policy for benefits, regardless as to the cause of the accident or whether the insured was personally responsible for his injuries. The "fault" provision of the Pennsylvania system applies to pain and suffering and other 'non-economic' losses, so the person who acted negligently and caused another's injuries is responsible for compensating the injured for his or her damages.

Let’s Focus on Pennsylvania Car Accident Law. So what do you need to know about it? The primary defense in a Personal Injury Negligence case, like a drunk driver accident in PA or slip and fall case is the injured person who has been a part to causing the accident. In Pennsylvania, this is called the Comparative Negligence Defense. If proven in Court, the defense can decrease the compensation owed to a victim of an accident or completely eliminate the victim's ability to recover.

Actually not all people in Pennsylvania are agreeing with this law. Some people felt that Contributory Negligence law is too cruel because if the injured party was identified to be the negligent and the defendant was much more responsible for the accident, the injured party would still be disqualify from recovery. The worst part of this PA auto accident law is that if the injured party was 1% responsible and the defendant 99% responsible, the injured party would still be unable to recover compensation for his injuries in court.

The Comparative Negligence Statute applies to all Personal Injury cases in which negligence is claimed, including car, truck and motorcycle accidents and slip and fall cases. This Statute also states that an injured party may have been negligent shall not bar recovery where the negligence was not greater than the negligence of the defendant, but any damages sustained shall be diminished in proportion to the amount of negligence attributable to the injured party.

This law is actually created to avoid further more car accidents in Pennsylvania and just trying to be fair to both injured party and defendant by means of holding both parties accountable for their responsibility in causing accident. Though some people are against it this is a great way to avoid more vehicular accidents.