In many scooter accidents, one person is obviously to blame. For example, a motorist might have run a red light and slammed into you. However, in other accidents, the person on the scooter could also contribute to the accident. This is not surprising, since many people are not familiar with how to safely operate a scooter. Fortunately, the Illinois law on comparative negligence allows injured victims to receive compensation even if they did not operate their scooter with reasonable care. Please contact Livas Law Group, A Division of Kralovec, Jambois & Schwartz for more information.
Comparative Negligence
Once upon a time, Illinois’ contributory negligence laws prohibited a victim from receiving any compensation if he or she was found to be even a little bit negligent. This was a serious bar to recovery for many personal injury plaintiffs, who might have made some error that contributed, even slightly, to a crash.
Fortunately, Illinois has changed this unfair rule. After a period of uncertainty, the legislature ultimately updated the law to state that a victim is barred from receiving compensation if their fault was greater than 50 percent. In other words, a victim can be up to 50 percent to blame for an accident and still receive compensation—a level of blame that is greater than 50 percent will leave them unable to collect compensation.
There is an important caveat. When a victim has contributed to their accident, the amount of compensation they can receive will be reduced by their proportion of fault. For example, if the total amount of your losses is determined to be $100,000, but you were found to be 35 percent to blame, your compensation would be reduced by 35 percent, leaving you with $65,000.
Scooter Accidents and Comparative Negligence
Many scooter operators make mistakes that unfortunately contribute to their crashes. For example, they might have been engaged in:
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Riding on a sidewalk
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Riding recklessly
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Cutting off other vehicles
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Failing to yield
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Tailgating
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Riding while impaired
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Operating a scooter while fatigued or drowsy
Other scooter riders are simply careless. They might not have been watching where they were going, or they could have had insufficient control of the scooter, causing them to crash. Some are distracted by cell phones or other electronic devices.
All of this behavior could qualify as negligence, which must be compared to the negligence of other parties. For example, you might have been looking at your phone while riding when a motorist who was also looking at his or her phone hit you. In this example, both people have been negligent. At our firm, we closely analyze the circumstances surrounding your accident so we can strongly argue that your actions did not contribute to the wreck. By doing so, we can increase the amount that you take home in a settlement or jury verdict.
Contact a Cook County Scooter Injury Lawyer
Livas Law Group has helped many accident victims obtain compensation to cover their medical bills and other expenses, especially when it comes to accidents involving e-scooters. To schedule a free initial consultation with one of our skilled Chicago personal injury lawyers, please call us at 312-804-6102.
Source:
http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/documents/073500050K2-1116.htm