WHAT IF THE ACCIDENT WHICH GAVE RISE TO MY INJURIES MAY HAVE BEEN PARTLY MY OWN FAULT ?

A legal concept known as “Contributory Negligence” arises in cases such as this. It is, however, important to stress at the outset that you can still receive compensation even if you may have been partly responsible for your own accident or injuries.

Contributory Negligence is where the person or organisation who you are claiming against in respect of your accident is to blame to at least some extent, but they seek to argue that you were yourself at least partly responsible for you accident or injuries.

An example of Contributory Negligence would be a Road Traffic Accident where the other party drove into the rear of a stationary vehicle, but the injured party who was a passenger in the stationary vehicle was not wearing any seatbelt. In such a scenario, the accident may have been the fault of the driver who collided into the rear of the stationary vehicle, but the injuries of the passenger in the stationary vehicle would have been made worse by the failure to wear a seatbelt.

A further example would be an accident at work where the employers was responsible for a defective tool which shattered, with the result of a piece of the tool injuring the eye of the employee who was using the tool, but the employee had failed to wear protective goggles which had been provided to him by the employer.

Contributory Negligence is usually expressed in terms of a percentage. For example, the other party is 75% to blame and you are 25% to blame. The percentages do, however, vary according to the particular circumstances of any particular accident.

Even if you were to be found to have been guilty of Contributory Negligence, you would still be regarded as having won your claim for compensation for the purpose of the other party being responsible for the payment of your reasonable legal costs in pursuing your claim for compensation.
The effect of a finding of Contributory Negligence would, however, be to REDUCE the amount of compensatory damages actually awarded to you by the percentage of your degree of responsibility. In other words, if the financial value of your claim would have been £2,000 if the other party had been fully responsible for your accident, BUT you were in fact considered to have been 25% to blame, then you would only actually be awarded £1,500 (i.e. £2,000 LESS 25%)