Opinion ID: 1180974
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Undue Complication of Litigation

Text: Petitioners maintain that allowing apportionment of damages based on failure to use seat belts will unnecessarily complicate and protract litigation. The defendant must establish several factual predicates before seat belt nonuse may be presented to the jury. See Pasakarnis, supra . To prove these factors, the defendant may utilize qualified experts in the medical, scientific, and accident reconstruction fields. It is then up to the factfinder to evaluate the evidence and quantify the results under comparative negligence principles. Of course, this process will take time and create new issues for the jury to decide. These problems are hardly insurmountable. Juries perform this type of operation on a regular basis in many types of civil and criminal cases. The very idea of comparative negligence requires that juries apportion fault. The same is true when juries apportion fault between joint tortfeasors. See A.R.S. § 12-2506 (apportionment of fault under comparative negligence and contribution statute). In some second impact or so-called crashworthiness cases, juries are required to determine the injuries attributable both to the original accident and to a manufacturer's failure to produce an automobile capable of withstanding foreseeable accidents. See discussion in General Motors Corp. v. Edwards, 482 So.2d 1176, 1189 (Ala. 1985). Courts almost universally entertain such actions, even though some recognize the complications produced by injury apportionment. Id. There is no doubt that the seat belt defense will complicate and lengthen litigation in some cases. While this certainly does not militate in favor of its acceptance, we believe the problem is no different in principle from that posed by any legal, technological or scientific advance. Neither law nor society can ignore technological change simply because it makes decision more complex.