Get a Settlement Check Even if You’re At Fault

Hi. I’m Roger Ghai, and I wanted to discuss a common issue that we sometimes get calls- as far as calls into my office as to whether you are able to actually recover on an injury case if you’re partially at fault. In Georgia, the answer is yes. This is what we call a comparative negligence state. For example, if you’ve been involved in a typical motor vehicle accident, whether it was a trucking accident or car accident, and for whatever reason the officer says, “Well, you know you were partially at fault.” Then the insurance company determined maybe you’re 20% at fault for causing the accident. What does that mean in the state of Georgia?
What it means is this. That you are not barred. You are not prevented from still recovering from the other insurance company, but your damages are actually going to be reduced. Again, that’s what we call a comparative negligence state. That is the state of Georgia, is what we are, comparative negligence. If you have recovered, let’s say, or supposed to recover $80,000 on your case and you are 20% comparatively negligent, then actually your recovery would probably be reduced to a total sum of $80,000 instead of the $100,000 that you would normally get.
These cases don’t happen very often. There can be good arguments on minimizing the comparative negligence on your part. If you have questions about whether you were partially at fault and still can recover on your case and whether it’s worth pursuing it, feel free to contact me at 770-792-1000.