The legal system appreciates the level of damages that can be caused by a simple accident. If someone’s careless and neglectful behavior has caused the same accident, then the victim can use the legal system to seek compensation for damages. First, however, the responsible party must be identified.
Questions to be answered during an investigation into the identity of the responsible party
• Of all the parties involved, which party was less careful; which one was more careful?
• Were any of the involved parties guilty of comparative negligence?
• Was the negligent individual carrying out the wishes of an employer?
• Could the accident be blamed on the owner of the property, the property on which the plaintiff was injured?
• If a defective product causes the product’s user to become injured, both the manufacturer and the seller can be held responsible.
Insights gained by studying a situation where more than one person/organization might be held responsible for a given accident
Personal injury lawyer in Lompoc is of the view that if more than one person has been held responsible for a given accident, then the injured victim gets to decide on the party that should be made the target of a lawsuit. In other words, the victim has the right to sue just one party on the list of defendants.
That does not mean that the sued party must accept the whole burden, as created by the need to compensate the accident’s injured victim. While that sued party may need to pay a court-ordered award, the same individual/organization has the right to seek reimbursement from the other responsible parties.
In order to obtain that reimbursement, the sued party must show that the other parties satisfied the elements of negligence. That means showing that each of them had a duty towards the plaintiff and breached that same duty.
At the same time, the sued party must show that the breach committed by the other parties harmed the party that filed the initial lawsuit. The party’s payment serves as proof that the damages caused the sued party to suffer a financial loss.
The presence of all those elements shows the court that each of the other parties demonstrated some level of negligence. For that reason, the party that gave the plaintiff the court-ordered award has the right to seek reimbursement from the other parties. What could keep the sued party from seeking some form of reimbursement?
A court could deny that reimbursement if it could be shown that one or more of the contacted parties had not been careless and neglectful prior to the accident. In addition, it could be denied if the medical report failed to support a charge that the other parties had acted in a way that caused injury to the plaintiff.