What Is Contributory Negligence in North Carolina Personal Injury Cases?
North Carolina has some of the harshest personal injury laws in the nation. The Tar Heel State remains one of the few jurisdictions that follows the contributory negligence rule, which only allows personal injury victims to recover compensation if they bear no responsibility for their injuries. Put simply, if a court assigns you even one percent of the fault for an accident, you get no money. With so much at stake, accident victims should consult a personal injury lawyer as soon as possible.
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Is It Possible to Challenge Contributory Negligence?
You can expect the at-fault party in your personal injury case to argue that you are partly or entirely responsible for what happened. After all, successfully pinning the blame on you gets the insurance company out of making a payout.
The good news is that there are ways to challenge contributory negligence and demand the fair compensation you deserve. Potential strategies include:
- Proving that the defendant(s) bears all the fault for the accident – You could avoid the consequences of the contributory negligence rule by proving you are in no way responsible for the accident and it is entirely the defendant’s fault.
- Proximate cause – A court may find you not at fault for an accident even though you committed an act of negligence as long as your negligence did not proximately cause the accident. In other words, was the accident a foreseeable result of your own negligence, or was another intervening, superseding event the most direct cause of the accident?
- Last clear chance doctrine – You can still recover under the contributory negligence rule by showing that the defendant had the last chance to avoid the accident and failed to do so.
- Gross negligence – Even if you committed an act of negligence, the law may allow you to recover compensation after an accident that occurred due to a defendant’s gross negligence — that is, the intentional or conscious disregard of or indifference to others’ rights and safety.
What Is the Last Clear Chance Doctrine?
The last clear chance doctrine provides an exception to the contributory negligence rule. Under this doctrine, an injured plaintiff who bears some liability for the accident can still recover compensation if they can prove that the defendant(s) had the “last clear chance” to avoid the accident. A plaintiff must successfully prove the following elements:
- The plaintiff’s negligence put them in a position of danger they could not escape by exercising reasonable care.
- The defendant knew or should have discovered the potential danger to the plaintiff and their inability to escape and also knew they could use reasonable care to avoid injuring the plaintiff.
- The defendant negligently failed to use the opportunity to avoid injuring the plaintiff.
Example: Jim stops his car along the side of the road to conduct repairs. Even though there was sufficient room on the shoulder, Jim failed to park the vehicle entirely out of the traffic lane. In this case, Jim may bear some of the fault if another motorist hits him since his car was in the way. However, under the last clear chance doctrine, Jim might still recover compensation from the other driver if the driver had sufficient opportunity to move and avoid hitting the disabled vehicle.
What Is Required to Prove Contributory Negligence?
Depending on the circumstances, a defendant might rely on various kinds of evidence to prove that a plaintiff contributed to an accident, such as:
- A business or property owner’s accident or incident report
- Police reports
- Accident scene photos and videos
- Surveillance footage
- Eyewitness statements
- Staffing records
- Maintenance and repair records
- Cell phone records
- GPS logs
- Medical records
- Toxicology and other lab test results
- Expert testimony
What Is the Most Difficult Part of Negligence to Prove?
A negligence claim has four legal elements — duty, breach, causation, and damages. In many personal injury claims based on negligence, causation is the most hotly contested element.
Causation involves showing a link between the defendant’s actions and your injuries. Cause in fact means you would not have been hurt if not for the defendant’s negligent actions. Proximate cause refers to the foreseeability of the injuries. When both parties bear some fault for an accident, they may dispute whether the plaintiff’s negligence was the proximate cause of the accident or whether the defendant had the last clear chance to prevent it.
How Can a North Carolina Personal Injury Lawyer Help?
If the at-fault party in your personal injury case tries to blame you for the incident, an experienced lawyer can dispute their account and counter it with a strong argument on your behalf.
A North Carolina personal injury attorney will:
- Thoroughly investigate the accident and recover evidence demonstrating the defendant’s fault
- Evaluate and develop legal strategies to challenge a contributory negligence defense, such as raising gross negligence claims or the last clear chance doctrine
- Document your injuries and losses so that you have the proof to recover the full amount of compensation you need for your ongoing and future expenses
Contact a North Carolina Personal Injury Attorney
Have you been injured in an accident in North Carolina? Don’t let the at-fault party blame you unfairly. Contact The Law Offices of John Drew Warlick, P.A. today for a free consultation with a North Carolina personal injury lawyer.
