Louisville Car Accident Liability
If you’ve been involved in a car accident in Louisville, you may be wondering who should be paying for your injuries. Car accident liability works a bit differently in Kentucky than it does in most states, so it’s an important question to know the answer to before you take legal action.
HJV Car Accident Personal Injury Lawyers can help you make sense of the process and fight for the maximum compensation you’re entitled to. Our Louisville car accident attorneys have decades of combined experience and have recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for injured clients throughout the Commonwealth.
Contact our law office today at (502) 540 5700 for a free consultation.
How HJV Car Accident Personal Injury Lawyers Can Help After a Car Accident in Louisville, KY
Establishing liability after a car accident isn’t always as easy as it might seem on the surface. For one, insurance companies fiercely contest these claims and will do whatever they can to protect their profits. These circumstances make it wise to have an experienced Louisville personal injury attorney on your side who can level the playing field.
HJV Car Accident Personal Injury Lawyers is one of Kentucky’s premier practices in this area of the law and has a longstanding track record of success that opposing parties can’t ignore.
When you hire our Louisville car accident lawyers, we can:
- Collect and review the available evidence from the scene of the crash
- Bring in accident reconstruction experts to help establish how the collision occurred
- Identify every party that may share some level of fault for the wreck
- Protect you from unfair attempts by insurers to inflate your share of the blame
- Calculate the full value of your damages, including expenses you’ll face in the future
- Handle all of the negotiations with the insurance companies and file a lawsuit in court if necessary
Get in touch with us today to learn more. Your initial consultation is completely free of charge.
How Does Kentucky’s Insurance System Affect Liability?
Kentucky operates under a “choice no-fault” insurance system for car accidents. What this means in practice is that after most accidents, your own personal injury protection (PIP) coverage pays for a portion of your medical bills and lost wages, regardless of who caused the crash. Kentucky law requires drivers to carry at least $10,000 in PIP coverage.
However, PIP has some important limitations to keep in mind. It won’t cover non-economic damages like pain and suffering, and the $10,000 minimum is often far short of the true cost of a serious injury. That’s where fault-based liability claims come into play.
You can step outside the no-fault system and file a claim directly against the at-fault driver if your case meets Kentucky’s tort threshold. Kentucky also allows drivers to reject PIP coverage and opt out of the no-fault system entirely.
Our car wreck lawyers can help you make it through this complexity and arrive at a plan of action that sets you up for success.
How Is Liability Determined After a Louisville Car Accident?
Liability in a Kentucky car accident usually comes down to the concept of negligence. This means proving that the other driver failed to act as a reasonable person would have in a similar situation.
Several types of evidence can be used to prove fault after a Louisville collision:
- The official police report and any traffic citations issued at the scene
- Photos and videos of the accident
- Testimony from eyewitnesses who saw the collision take place
- Data from dash cameras and nearby security footage
- Expert analysis from accident reconstruction professionals
In some cases, more than one driver may share responsibility for the wreck. This could increase the total compensation available to you as the victim.
How Do Kentucky’s Shared Fault Laws Work?
Kentucky follows what’s called a pure comparative negligence standard under KRS § 411.182. This means that your compensation is reduced by your percentage of fault, but you aren’t completely barred from recovering damages. Technically speaking, a driver who is found 99% at fault can still collect 1% of their damages from the other party.
To put it in perspective, let’s say a jury determines that your total damages are $200,000 but decides that you were 25% at fault for the accident. Your recovery would be reduced to $150,000. Every single percentage point matters, and that’s exactly why insurance companies work so hard to shift as much blame onto the injured party as they can.
Schedule a Free Consultation With Our Louisville Car Accident Lawyers
Figuring out liability after a car accident in Louisville means navigating Kentucky’s choice no-fault insurance rules and dealing with insurance companies that aren’t on your side. HJV Car Accident Personal Injury Lawyers is here to take care of your legal claim from start to finish as you focus on your health.
Contact our experienced Louisville car accident attorneys today for a free consultation to get started with your case.