You still have a potential case if someone else was also at fault. Under New York law, an injured party does not need to prove that his or her losses were entirely someone else’s fault. Our state follows the doctrine of comparative negligence, which means that each party in a particular personal injury lawsuit can be held responsible for their own share of the losses. How much responsibility each party bears for an accident is usually a question of fact that must be answered by a jury if the plaintiff and defendant cannot agree on this issue.
For example, in a car accident case in which a jury finds $200,000 in losses to the plaintiff, they could decide that the defendant was 70 percent responsible for the accident and the plaintiff was 30 percent at fault. In that situation, the plaintiff would be able to collect $140,000 from the defendant and his or her insurer, which reflects the proportional responsibility that each party bears for the accident.
In some states, the plaintiff will recover nothing without proof that the defendant was at least 50 percent at fault. In New York, however, any percentage of fault proved against a defendant will support the injured person’s right to recovery, even if the injured person was mostly responsible.
In the example above, the plaintiff would be able to recover $60,000 if the jury found that the plaintiff was 70 percent responsible for causing the accident and the defendant was only 30 percent to blame.