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In Tennessee, personal injury law involves civil claims in which a person is injured through the negligence, intentional misconduct, or recklessness of another person, company, or property owner. A personal injury lawsuit may arise from physical or emotional injuries, and the process of personal injury law is designed to compensate these injured individuals for the physical harm they have suffered, as well as medical bills, emotional pain and suffering, and any other damages, within reason.
If you have been injured in a serious car accident in Tennessee, your first step should be to contact our personal injury lawyers at Ponce Law for legal help. Our law firm is located in Nashville, and our legal team has years of experience protecting the rights of car accident victims throughout the state. With our attorneys on your side, you can seek fair and timely reimbursement for your injuries and protect yourself and your family from further harm.
When a claim for damages is caused by an accident, and the claim is brought before the court, the judge or jury must determine who caused the accident, and thus, who is responsible for paying the resulting damages. If more than one person is deemed responsible for the accident, negligence is distributed between the parties based on state laws, and this is where contributory negligence and comparative negligence come into play.
There are three basic systems used when establishing damage awards in the United States:
Under this legal doctrine, as the plaintiff, you are allowed to recover damages in a personal injury case even if you are largely at fault. This system is used in states like California, New York, and Mississippi, and damages are reduced by the plaintiff’s percentage of fault.
This strict legal guideline is an “all or nothing” policy where you are barred from recovering any damages if you are found even one percent at fault for an accident. This principle acts as a complete defense that would negate your personal injury claim, regardless of how negligent the other party acted. States like Alabama, Maryland, North Carolina, and Virginia have implemented this guiding principle.
Also called the 50% Bar Rule, the modified comparative negligence rule in personal injury law allows you to recover damages only if you are less than 50% at fault, or 51%, depending on the state. If your fault is determined to fall below this threshold, your damages are reduced by your percentage of blame. Alternatively, if you are 50% or more at fault, or 51% or more depending on the state, you receive zero compensation. Many states, including Texas, Florida, Ohio, and Colorado, use this system to ensure fairness in claims.
Tennessee follows the modified comparative negligence rule, or 50% Bar Rule, which means that an injured party in the state can only recover compensation for damages if it is determined that his or her fault in causing the accident is 49% or less.
In our experience, understanding how to apply our state’s modified comparative negligence rule is easier with an example. So, to illustrate this calculation, imagine that two people are involved in a Tennessee car accident. Person 1 sues Person 2 for damages, but is found to be 50% at fault for the accident, so Person 1 cannot recover any damages from Person 2.
If, however, person 1 is found to be 40% at fault for the accident, person 1 can recover damages from person 2, but the award would be reduced by person 1’s portion of fault in causing the accident. Under these circumstances, if person 1 suffered $10,000 in damages in a Tennessee car accident involving person 2, and is found to be 40% at fault, person 1’s award would be reduced by 40%, equaling $6,000.
Tennessee’s modified comparative negligence system ensures that if you, as the injured person, are partly responsible for the incident that caused your damages, you would likely be barred from collecting full compensation from the other parties involved. To determine your percentage of fault, an insurance adjuster (or the court) would determine who breached the duty of care and how much by reviewing the evidence, including:
Tennessee lawmakers have given you just one year from the date of your injury to file your personal injury claim. However, this statute of limitations does not apply to property damage cases. The deadline for these claims is generally up to three years. Additionally, if the injured person is a child or legally incompetent, the statute of limitations is paused (or “tolled” in legal jargon) until they regain competency or turn 18.
However, if your injuries are not immediately apparent, the state’s Discovery Rule would apply. In this case, the strict one-year statute of limitations period would start from the date the injury is discovered rather than the date of the injury. This policy was enacted because the body releases adrenaline and endorphins during a crash, which can temporarily mask pain and other signs of serious or permanent injury. Examples of delayed injuries after a car accident that would extend Tennessee’s statute of limitations on personal injury claims include:
It is extremely important that victims of car accident injuries in Tennessee understand the laws in place in the state, so that they can ensure they receive the compensation they deserve. For this reason, enlisting the help of a personal injury attorney following a TN car accident is critical.
Start your free case review now and reach out to Ponce Law with your questions about our state’s comparative negligence rule. We are the only firm in the area with the ability to download footage from Tennessee Department of Transportation cameras with RoadProof. Utilizing this data may be the best way to ensure you fall below the 50% threshold needed to successfully recover your damages.
