Contributory Negligence

If the other side admit that they are liable for your compensation claim, they might still argue that you have contributed to your accident because you were negligent.

If you accept that you were partly responsible for your accident or a court decides you were, the compensation amount may be reduced in proportion to your level of blame for your injuries. This may be the case if, for example, you did not cause a car accident but you had forgotten to wear your seatbelt and this made your injuries worse.

In deciding whether you have been partly responsible for your accident, a test of 'what is reasonable' is applied. For example, if you are injured in a car which was being driven by somebody who was under the influence of alcohol, the question will be asked whether it was reasonable for you to have got into the car with that person. What you knew about whether the driver had been drinking could be important information.

If you wish to speak to one of our specialist personal injury solicitors, please contact us on freephone 0808 155 4870. We have offices in London, Manchester & Birmingham and operate nationally.