This distinction is made under Georgia’s comparative negligence statutes, which allow for the possibility that some accidents are jointly caused by both drivers. Each driver can be assigned any percentage of the fault from 0 to 100 percent. In some cases, it may be 100 percent one driver’s responsibility. But in many other accidents, each party made at least one error that contributed to the crash.
Under the state’s comparative negligence laws, the party who is more than 50 percent at fault cannot collect damages from the second driver. This is what we mean by “mostly at fault.” The driver who was less than 50 percent at fault can collect damages, but these will be reduced by the percentage of fault they were given. As you can imagine, the less fault you take responsibility for, the better off you’ll be with your claim.
Not surprisingly, insurance adjusters and drivers often try to exploit this law by claiming you were mostly at fault. Sometimes they manage to convince people who had little or no responsibility in a crash that it was mostly on them. We’ve talked with people who were convinced they caused a collision when they only made a minor mistake that had little or no bearing on the eventual crash. Don’t let this happen to you. Speak to a car accident attorney before you talk to the insurance company.