Is Toyota responsible for the injuries that I suffered in the accident?
Toyota’s most recent recall brings the total number of vehicles on the recall list to almost seven million. As of this week, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) database shows over 1000 complaints regarding recalled vehicles and numerous injuries reported within those complaints. If you are one of the growing number of people that have been involved in an accident where either you, or one of the other drivers, were driving a recalled vehicle, then you may be asking the question “ Is Toyota responsible for the injuries that I suffered in the accident?”. The answer to that question is – maybe.
There are two basic negligence doctrines used in the United States today – comparative and contributory. While contributory negligence was once the standard, only five states continue to use that doctrine today. Under contributory negligence, if your own negligence contributed to the harm you suffered, then you cannot recover anything from the defendant(s). This doctrine frequently results in obviously unfair verdicts. If, for instance, the Plaintiff was only 5% responsible for the accident then they are still unable to collect anything for their injuries. The majority of states use a form of comparative negligence. Comparative negligence is a partial legal defense that reduces the amount of damages that a plaintiff can recover in a negligence-based claim based upon the degree to which the plaintiff’s own negligence contributed to cause the injury. In California, as an example, if you are involved in an accident and a jury determines that your negligence contributed 5% to the total negligence that caused the accident, then you can only recover 95% of the total value of the damages in your case.
In comparative negligence states, such as California, you may have more than one defendant in a car accident case. For instance, a jury may decide that the manufacturer of the vehicle you were driving has some fault for the accident, but so do you and so does the driver of the other vehicle with which you collided. It is for this reason that the answer to “Is Toyota responsible for the injuries that I suffered in an accident?” is maybe. There are a number of factors that are involved in determining negligence – what state your accident was in is just one factor. In order to get a clear answer to who is liable as well as any other questions you may have, contact an experienced California personal injury and product liability attorney for a consultation. The laws regarding liability in both personal injury and product liability cases are very complex and only an experienced attorney can answer specific questions as they apply to your individual situation.
If you believe that one of the vehicles involved in the recent Toyota recalls is responsible, in whole or in part, for injuries you suffered in an accident, contact an experienced California personal injury and product liability attorney to discuss your options.
If you would like an experienced attorney to evaluate your case, contact the law offices of Ledger & Associates at 1-800-300-0001 or visit us at www.ledgerlaw.com.
