When you’ve been involved in a car accident in Oklahoma and have suffered injuries or damage to your vehicle, it can create an extremely stressful situation. In order to figure out whether you are entitled to damages, you must first determine liability. When you take your case to court, the jury may find that the car accident was entirely the other driver’s fault. But what happens if the jury finds that you are both to blame?
As a modified comparative negligence state, Oklahoma allows a driver to still recover compensation for his or her damages in a car accident, Still, your compensation will be reduced in accordance with your percentage of blame – assuming that you don’t bear more of the blame than the other driver.
For example, if a jury were to find that your damages amounted to $100,000, but also finds that you were 10 per cent to blame for the crash, your damages ($100,000) would be reduced by your percentage of blame (10 per cent). Therefore you would subtract 10 per cent from 0,000, leaving you with a total of ,000.
In another example, imagine that the jury finds that your damages amount to 0,000 but also that you were 51 per cent to blame.
Since your percentage of blame exceeds that of the other driver, under Oklahoma state law you will be barred from recovering any compensation.
The courts are not at liberty to bypass this rule.
They must bar recovery when you carry more of the liability. However, since determining liability is not a purely objective manner, you bear the responsibility of convincing a judge or jury that the other driver carried more blame for the accident.
In order to improve your likelihood of doing so, it’s important that you:
Every state has different insurance guidelines. Oklahoma, which has at-fault insurance laws, requires the car insurance company of the at-fault driver to pay. Each driver must obtain the state-required minimum amount of auto insurance.
However, in situations in which a driver has not complied with this requirement, you may be able to turn to your own car insurance policy to pay for your injuries if you maintain uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage.
If you or a loved one has been injured in a car accident, you should not have to pay for someone else’s mistakes. The attorneys at Graves McLain have substantial experience in representing individuals in auto vehicle accidents.
There is no charge for Graves McLain to review your case. If we represent you, we will handle your case on a contingency fee basis (calculated as a percentage of the recovery we obtain). Call an experienced Oklahoma Auto Accident Attorney at Graves McLain at 918-359-6600 today. Trust our team. We’re here to help.
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