How A Passenger Can Get Compensated After A Car Accident?

A company that sells an automobile insurance policy to a car owner assumes that the same policy must cover the driver. Yet that does not mean that the same company gives no thought to the fact that a passenger might be seated in a car that gets involved in an accident.

A passenger that has been injured during a collision can make a claim against the responsible driver.

• The injured passenger must find out who was at-fault.
• The same passenger must produce proof that the driver targeted by the claim was at-fault.
• By the same token, it is the passenger’s responsibility to show that the driver’s negligence caused the claimed injury.

Suppose that the injured passenger is related to the responsible driver, or is a good friend of that same driver?

That fact should not keep the victim of an accident from seeking the deserved compensation. All insured drivers carry liability insurance. Their possession of such coverage allows them to compensate an injured passenger, in the event that their actions have caused a collision.

Why should an injured passenger give serious thought to hiring a lawyer?

Even though the driver’s policy includes liability insurance, that does not guarantee compensation to a passenger when another driver has been held responsible for a car crash. The other driver’s insurance company must compensate any injured passengers. The lawyer representing the defendant (the responsible driver) may question the nature and extent of the injuries that have been claimed by the plaintiff/passenger.

The defendant’s lawyer may allege that the passenger/plaintiff was partly responsible for the accident. A typical defense tactic relies the allegation that the passenger was not wearing a seat belt. It is also possible that some description of the passenger’s injury has provided the defendant’s attorney with the chance to use an alternative tactic.

It may be that the Personal Injury Lawyer in Richmond Hill representing the defendant has learned that the passenger had a pre-existing medical condition. It could be that the passenger’s medical history includes mention of the patient’s/passenger’s reliance on an implanted device. Based on that fact, the lawyer defending the responsible driver might insist that someone that depends on such a device should wear 2 seat belts.

That is a false assumption. According to the law, no defendant has the right to pick and choose who might become injured as a result of an act of negligence. That rule applies to every single one of all defendants’ negligent acts.

How does that rule apply to injured passengers? Regardless of the nature of their injury, their medical history cannot serve as basis for claiming that their actions have made them partly responsible for a given accident. That fact highlights one possible reason for hiring a lawyer.

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