Comparative Negligence In Georgia

Comparative negligence is essentially a defense in Georgia and other states which allows a defendant to claim that the plaintiff was partially responsible for damages in a personal injury incident or accident in order to reduce the recovery against them in personal injury claims. Similar to how it sounds, under the defense, a victim who is partially responsible for the incident or the harm that they suffered can only recover part of their damages.

Modified Comparative Negligence

In Georgia, this means that the plaintiff is not completely barred from recovering if they are less than 50 percent responsible for the damages related to the incident and, instead, fault is weighed and correlates to damages. For example, if the total damages assessed are $100,000 and the defendant is found to be 80% at fault, the damages assessed against the defendant would be $80,000.

However, because Georgia is a modified comparative fault state, if the plaintiff is found to be more than 50 percent or more negligent compared to the defendant, they would be barred from recovering any damages. In these circumstances, defendants will typically argue that the plaintiff failed to take actions that a “reasonable” person would have taken under similar circumstances and this negligence was partially or completely responsible for causing the injuries in question.

Take for example a pothole in a store parking lot: If a customer falls into the pothole and injures themselves, they can bring a personal injury claim under premises liability. The defendant store however could use comparative negligence as a defense and argue that the customer should have been paying better attention and, had they, they might have avoided the entire accident or at least mitigated their injuries.

Where these cases can get tricky is when it’s one person’s word against another’s in terms of alleging fault. In these cases, witnesses are crucial in order to ensure that justice is done. However, when there are no witnesses, insurance companies and attorneys working on personal injury claims can also refer to the police report, any photos and/or videos taken, and can also initiate an investigation by looking at the damage to the vehicles involved and the surrounding area.

Assumption of Risk

Defendants will sometimes also try to raise what’s known as the assumption of the risk, which essentially alleges that the victim knew or should have known of the dangers associated with a situation – i.e. that they understood and appreciated the risks associated with it – and they voluntarily exposed themselves to those risks.

Contact Us Today for Help

If you or a loved one has been harmed in an accident or due to someone else’s negligence, contact our Macon personal injury lawyers at the Law Offices of Buzzell, Welsh & Hill for a free confidential consultation today to find out how we can help.