What If Multiple People Were Responsible for My Injuries?
If you are involved in a motor vehicle accident or any other personal injury scenario, sometimes there is only one person who is responsible for your injuries. This makes proving your case relatively simple and straightforward; you just have to show that the one person was negligent, that the person’s negligence caused you injuries and then prove your damages were a result of that person’s negligence. However, there are many scenarios in which there may be multiple people responsible for causing your injuries.
A motor vehicle accident is one example of a scenario in which there can be multiple tortfeasors (the legal term for someone whose negligence causes injury to another person). For example, if you are a bicyclist hit by a driver who sees you at the last minute and slams on the brakes right before he or she hits you, but then the driver behind the driver that hits you is texting and slams into the back of the first driver, causing his or her car to be pushed into you with greater force than would otherwise have been the case, you would have valid negligence claims against both those drivers. You would be able to sue both drivers because, even though the first driver was the one who actually hit you, the force with which that first driver hit you was considerably multiplied by the force with which the second driver plowed into the first driver. This resulted in you suffering much more serious injuries than if the driver of the second car had been paying attention rather than texting.
This may seem to be a scenario in which it is difficult to disentangle the negligence of the first driver from that of the second driver. However, an experienced personal injury attorney like those at Schwed, Adams & McGinley, in conjunction with the right medical and other experts, can unravel the entire accident and demonstrate to the jury how multiple people were responsible, how each was specifically negligent and what the results of that negligence were for you, the accident victim. Therefore, simply because you may have been injured as a result of multiple people’s negligence does not mean that you should not pursue your claims against any and all parties whose negligence caused your injuries.
If Multiple People Were Responsible, Does Suing Them Make My Case More Difficult to Prove?
A trial based on the scenario above will involve some complicated factual and medical issues. For example, the second driver is likely to argue that his or her actions did not cause any part of the injuries that you suffered, even though he or she was texting and clearly negligent in operating his or her vehicle, causing it to slam into the car in front of the second driver. This is clearly an erroneous argument to anyone who has even an elementary understanding of physics, however, as the force from the second car is transferred to the first car when it slams into the first car, causing the first car to slam into the bicyclist at a much higher rate of speed than would have occurred in the absence of the second car and its driver’s negligence. A good accident reconstruction expert can dissect this for even the least physics-oriented person in plain English to explain exactly why the second driver was negligent and what the results of that negligence were for the accident victim.
Laypeople may think it is a difficult proposition to try and sort out which injuries may be attributable to which tortfeasor in cases involving multiple tortfeasors but, with the right experts and an experienced personal injury attorney, a complex accident can be explained in simple terms that a jury can understand so they can see how multiple people were responsible. In the scenario above, the right expert can demonstrate to the jury how it is a simple law of physics that your injuries were much worse because that second car slammed into the first. This resulted in you being hurt much worse than would have been the case if you had only been involved in an accident in which that first car was involved. In this scenario, therefore, the right attorney and the right expert can ensure that you succeed in your claims against both drivers.
Contact Schwed, Adams & McGinley
At Schwed, Adams & McGinley, our experienced personal injury attorneys have more than 150 years of representing the victims of all sorts of motor vehicle accidents and other personal injury scenarios in Florida. We have successfully represented clients whose injuries were caused by the negligence of two or even more tortfeasors. We have experienced, capable medical and accident reconstruction experts who can take even the most complicated accident and break it down into simple concepts that a juror can understand. Therefore, if you, a family member, or a loved one have been injured as a result of someone else’s negligence, contact the experienced personal injury attorneys at Schwed, Adams & McGinley, P.A today at 877-694-6079 or contact@schwedlawfirm.com for a free consultation.