When you are seriously injured, medical bills and lost wages can be a tremendous financial burden. Understanding your legal rights is important when you believe someone else caused your injury. One of the most basic laws Beaumont personal injury lawyers apply in accident and injury cases is negligence law.
Texas statutes §§ 33.001-33.017 explain negligence and your right to compensation for injury. Texas operates under comparative negligence law, which compares the fault of everyone involved in causing the accident and injuries. This includes you, if any of your actions or failure to act contributed to your own injury. Sometimes the injury cause is clear cut and only one party is to blame. However, in other instances multiple parties may be responsible for an accident. For instance, three parties would be at fault in an accident that involved a drunk driver, a victim not wearing a seat belt and a defective SUV model prone to roof crush in a rollover accident. Whenever a plaintiff is 51% or more at fault, Texas negligence law bars that person from recovering compensation. Furthermore, whatever percentage of fault the court assigns to the plaintiff reduces his or her recovery by that amount. For example, a plaintiff who was 10% at fault would receive 90% recovery of the monetary value attributed to damages.
In particular, complex personal injury cases can be difficult to unravel. A Beaumont personal injury attorney knows all the applicable laws and the best strategies for recovering the compensation entitled by law.
The Bernsen Law Firm offers a free consultation and meets with clients at their homes or in the hospital if they are unable to visit our office. By: David E. Bernsen