Yes, in some cases you may still be able to obtain a court verdict or negotiate an insurance settlement even if you were partly at fault for the truck crash that left you injured on a Wisconsin roadway. What you may be able to recover depends on the amount of fault that is ultimately attributed to you.
Wisconsin Comparative Negligence Law
The Wisconsin comparative negligence law allows you to recover damages if:
- Your negligence was not greater than the negligence of the defendant from whom you seek damages.
- Your negligence was less than 51% of the total negligence that caused the crash.
The amount of damages that you can recover will be reduced by the percentage of fault that is assigned to you. For example, if you are found to be 25% responsible for the crash because you were speeding and the trucker is found to be 75% responsible for the crash because he made an illegal turn, then your recovery of damages would be reduced by 25%. Thus, if the value of your damages is found to be $100,000, you would be able to recover $75,000.
It will be up to you and your attorney to convince the insurance company or the court of the percentage of fault that should be attributed to each defendant and to you. This will require compelling evidence and convincing arguments. It is a matter that you should expect will be hotly contested and one that your attorney will pay a lot of attention to beginning at your first consultation and continuing throughout your case.
To learn more about how a Wisconsin truck accident case works and the damages that you might recover in a settlement or in court, we encourage you to speak with an experienced truck accident attorney as soon as possible. Contact us online or call us directly at 800.800.5678 today to schedule your free consultation. We look forward to helping you through this difficult time and to getting you the fair recovery that you deserve.
