Liability and Fault in Auto Claims
No Fault Insurance and Standards of Determining Fault in an Accident
Jul 10, 2007
After an accident, the insurer of each vehicle will make a decision regarding who is at fault for the accident. “No fault” insurance, in states where it exists, applies only to medical costs. In all states, if there is an accident, there will be a determination of liability – and it may not be what you expect.
In many cases, responsibility is clear, such as when one car rear-ends another, or if someone hits a parked car. But in some cases, the standard for finding liability may surprise you.
For example, say you have parallel parked your car along the curb. You open the door to get out, then remember that you forgot to get something out of the glove box. You reach over, open the box, take the item and close the box, having left the car door open for, say, five seconds. You turn back toward the door to get out and Wham! someone driving too far to the right (and you suspect speeding) takes off your door. Had you not forgotten your item, you might have been taken along with it with much more dire consequences.
Whose fault? Probably yours, even though you were legally parked and your door had arguably been open long enough for the other driver to see and avoid it. The legal reasoning is that the other driver was proceeding with right-of-way and your open door was improperly obstructing the road, no matter how long it was open.
You can argue that the other person was too far to the right, was speeding, or had enough time to have avoided you, but in almost every circumstance, the finding will go against you. Why? Because insurance people are stupid and lazy? Nope. It’s pretty much the law. In at least one state, there are state-issued guidelines saying that in a case like this the person with the open door “shall be presumed to be in excess of 50% liable.” In short, it’s your fault.
Another scenario: you are proceeding through a green light at a legal speed when a car enters the intersection from the cross street and hits you near the back of your car. Clear liability, right? Not if the other person insists it was you who ran the red light. Without an independent witness to back up one or the other of you, there is just no way to prove who is actually in the right. In states where it is allowed, liability in such cases is usually apportioned out at 50% on each driver.
The point here is not to lay blame on the legal system or to suggest that you are going to “get screwed” if you have an accident. Rather, to a considerable degree, insurance adjusters are bound by legal standards and limited by practical issues (eg, conflicting versions of the accident) that no amount of investigation or wisdom is going to change.
