How is Fault Determined for Multi-Vehicle Accidents in Massachusetts?

When you get injured in a multi-vehicle accident, determining fault will be paramount to recover compensation for your damages. Our attorneys can identify each driver who played a role in your accident and hold them accountable in a lawsuit.

Negligent drivers in Massachusetts can be held jointly and severally liable for your damages, meaning that each defendant will be held liable for 100% of your damages as if they caused the accident alone. If one defendant cannot afford to pay your losses, the other defendants must pick up the slack, shifting the risk of losing out financially to them. Even if you were partially at fault, we could still help you recover compensation if you were not more negligent than the other drivers combined.

For a free case assessment from our Boston car accident lawyers, call the Law Office of John J. Sheehan today at (617) 925-6407.

How is Negligence Apportioned After an Accident Involving Multiple Vehicles in Massachusetts?

One of the most important questions after a car accident is who is responsible for the damages caused. The question of fault can be incredibly difficult to answer when multiple vehicles are involved in the crash. How to recover compensation from the negligent drivers will be another matter entirely. Our Peabody, MA car accident attorneys in Massachusetts can help determine how each driver contributed to your accident while fighting claims that you acted negligently. In an insurance claim or lawsuit, it is common for defendants to point the finger at you, especially since fault can be hard to sort out in a multi-vehicle accident. Fortunately, multiple defendants can be held jointly and severally liable for your losses, giving you the best chances of recovering the compensation you deserve.

Joint and Several Liability

When multiple drivers are found jointly and severally liable, any of the defendants can be held accountable for damages. It is then up to the defendants to sort out their individual shares of liability and payments, according to Mass. Gen. Laws Ch. 231, § 1. While the plaintiff cannot claim compensation for the same injury more than once, they have the option to pursue a single defendant for the full amount of their damages. The point of joint and several liability is to ensure that the victim is fully compensated when one or more defendants are unable to pay the percentage of damages they were found liable for.

Compare this to states that use a several liability rule. In these states, each driver is assigned a percentage of fault, and defendants are only responsible for paying their particular share of the damages. If one or more defendants are insolvent, a victim will not recover the full compensation they deserve. For instance, if a driver was found 10% at fault and paid the victim but the defendant who is 90% responsible could not because they are broke, the victim would be left to cover those losses.

Fortunately, Massachusetts uses a “pure” form of joint and several liability, meaning that each driver is individually responsible for the total amount of damages no matter what their particular degree of fault is determined to be compared to others. Defendant drivers have a right of contribution to file a claim against other defendants to recover the percentage of compensation they were made to pay. This way, the burden shifts from the plaintiff to the defendants to determine the exact percentage of fault.

Comparative Negligence

With the confusion often involved in a multi-vehicle accident, it is common for victims to face claims that they also contributed to the accident. However, you still have a right to pursue compensation even if you were partially at fault under Massachusetts’ comparative negligence rule.

According to § 85, you can still recover compensation as long as your degree of fault is not greater than the total percentage of negligence attributed to the defendants. If your share of fault is at or less than 50% and the defendants’ negligence together adds up to 50% or more, you will recover compensation. However, your damages will be diminished in proportion to your share of fault.

For instance, let us say you were found 20% negligent for the multi-vehicle collision, while the defendants’ fault added up to 80%. If you were awarded $100,000 in damages, you would recover $80,000 minus your 20% of liability.

How Can You Determine What Happened in a Multi-Vehicle Accident in Massachusetts?

Working with our attorneys is the best way to determine how a multi-vehicle accident happened and who did what in it.

Our team will typically start by reviewing accident reports to establish the sequence of events. The police report will contain driver and witness statements, which can provide insights into each driver’s actions leading up to the accident. It will also include the police officer’s observations of the scene, like where the vehicles were positioned after the crash, skid marks, and how the debris was distributed around the crash site. Our team can also work with experts, like accident reconstruction specialists, who can apply their scientific knowledge to this information to provide an accurate analysis of how the other drivers were negligent.

Our team will also interview witnesses and question the other drivers to scrutinize their behavior before and during the crash. Perhaps one of them admitted that they were following too closely, leading to a chain reaction when hit from behind. Others might have been on their phone, not paying attention to a situation as it was unfolding. We can gather phone records to determine if one of the drivers was texting or on the phone when the collision happened.

If you or any of the other drivers had dashcams installed, the video footage can be used as evidence. This footage can provide a clear view of how the accident started, when each collision occurred, and how other drivers reacted to it.

Call Our Car Accident Attorneys in Massachusetts Today for Help Determining Who is Responsible for Your Damages

For a free case review with Milford, MA car accident lawyers in Massachusetts, call the Law Office of John J. Sheehan at (617) 925-6407.