A traffic accident is not always caused by the misconduct of a single driver – especially when multiple vehicles are involved. Often, several parties involved in the incident are not entirely without fault. For this reason, courts often use so-called degrees of fault or liability quotas in traffic accidents to fairly distribute the weight of responsibility and the associated costs.
Determining this liability quota can be tricky in many cases. Often, there are also conflicting statements from those involved in the accident. In some situations, there are presumptions of liability based on specific accident scenarios, where a so-called prima facie evidence can apply. Furthermore, for different road users – and if the course of the accident cannot be fully clarified – liability quotas apply based on a vehicle's "inherent operational risk," which is higher for a truck, for example, than for a passenger car. Depending on the degree of fault, the opposing party's liability insurance must cover your damages. This means you may have to bear a proportional share of the resulting costs yourself, such as those for an expert.
If you cannot rule out the possibility that you might bear partial fault for the accident, we recommend an initial consultation with our experienced traffic law attorneys in Nuremberg to assess the situation.
