If you live in Minnesota and drive a car, you know that you are required to have car insurance. When you were purchasing that car insurance, you probably noticed that you were required to purchase personal injury protection (PIP). This is because Minnesota is a no-fault state. When you get into a car accident, your insurance company will pay for your basic medical bills and initial lost wages, regardless of which driver was at fault in the accident.
Does this mean determining fault is meaningless? No, because if you were seriously injured, our Minnesota car accident lawyers are equipped to help you file a lawsuit to get additional compensation from the insurance company of the at-fault driver. In this situation, our experienced attorneys who know how to determine who is at fault in a Minnesota car accident can be indispensable.
The Basics of Determining Fault
When trying to determine who is at fault in a Minnesota car accident, there are effectively two types of accidents – those where neither party is initially assumed at fault and those where responsibility immediately defaults to one party. The latter is good if you are the victim and you are seeking to file a personal injury lawsuit. These default liability accident types include:
- Rear-end accidents
- Left-hand turn accidents
- Accidents where someone runs a red light
- Accidents that involve someone backing up.
Typically, unless there are exceptional circumstances, a particular driver is assigned fault in these accidents. In the above-listed accident types, the driver turning left is usually at fault, as is the driver who runs a red light. Attorneys who want to challenge this default assumption will need considerable evidence of conflicting circumstances. For example, if one driver in an accident turned left legally and the other driver ran a red light, the driver turning left would not be considered at fault by default, because running a red light more definitively puts the other driver at fault.
But not all accidents are this cut and dried. In many accidents, both parties might reasonably be at fault. For example, if two cars get into an accident in an intersection where there is a four-way stop, it might not be immediately obvious who was at fault. Typically, the driver who arrived first has the right of way. But if both drivers arrive at the same time, the driver on the right has the right of way. In an accident, the driver on the right might claim the two drivers arrived at the same time, while the driver on the left might claim to have arrived first.
Cases like this represent the perfect time to hire our personal injury lawyers because of the complexity involved. You need someone on your side to protect your rights and to try to find evidence that shows you are telling the truth, meaning you were not at fault and have the right to file an injury lawsuit. Our experienced Minnesota personal injury attorneys will interview witnesses, attempt to find camera footage, and possibly even use an expert who can reconstruct accidents to determine which driver’s testimony is accurate.
Why Is It Important to Determine Fault In a Minnesota Car Accident?
The police and your insurance company may attempt to determine fault after a car accident, but neither party is doing it to help you file an injury lawsuit. The police typically only care about determining fault so that they can give tickets or even potentially charge someone for a crime. Unless an injury lawsuit could arise out of the circumstances in the accident, the insurance company needs to determine fault only to see whether it can use the accident as a reason to increase your premiums.
But when do you need to know how to determine who is at fault in a Minnesota car accident that includes injuries? You need to determine fault when the law allows you to bypass the no-fault system and file a lawsuit. This can be done when:
- You have suffered an injury that requires more than $4,000 in medical bills.
- You were permanently disfigured by the accident.
- You suffered a disability that lasted 60 days or more.
- Someone died in the accident.
These circumstances allow you to file a lawsuit against the at-fault driver that can recover non-economic damages and greater financial damage amounts.
Damages You Could Receive in a Car Accident Lawsuit
The minimum PIP you are permitted to purchase provides up to $20,000 in medical expense reimbursement and up to $20,000 in income loss reimbursement due to injuries resulting from a car accident, regardless of who was at fault. It also pays up to $20,000 for survivor benefits, should the driver die.
All these benefits are economic benefits. That means they reimburse the victims for specific expenses and losses that can be calculated. Did you miss two weeks of work after suffering a burn injury in a car accident? If you are paid $2,000 a week normally, then you should get $4,000 of reimbursement for your lost wages. But a PIP insurance policy won’t pay you any money for the mental anguish or physical suffering that you experienced in the Minnesota motor vehicle injury accident.
PIP benefits don’t provide any compensation for your suffering, no matter how badly you were injured. The only way to get any compensation for your pain and suffering is by suing the at-fault driver of the other vehicle for non-economic damages. These damages don’t have exact amounts associated with them, like medical bills do. Typically, they are calculated as a factor of any economic damages you suffered.
Filing a lawsuit against the at-fault driver or making a third-party insurance claim against the driver’s insurance company is the only way to get additional compensation after you reach the limits of your PIP.
Partial Benefits Because of Partial Fault
Unfortunately, it might be uncommon for someone to be completely responsible for the injuries that another party suffered in an accident. For example, assume for a moment that the other driver was speeding and ran a red light when hitting your car. It seems that the other driver is unquestionably at fault, but it might not be true. If you weren’t wearing your seat belt, you would be partially responsible for the severity of your injuries. That partial fault limits your ability to get compensation under the Minnesota comparative fault statute.
This statute states that if you are partially responsible for injuries that you suffered, you can still receive compensation, but any compensation a jury awards you is reduced by a percentage equal to the percentage of fault you share. This is another reason why it is so important to accurately determine the share of fault in a car accident in Minnesota. The insurance company wants to pay as little compensation as possible. It will gather as much evidence as it can find to show that you were partially or primarily responsible for your injuries. Our attorneys will be equally diligent in gathering evidence that supports your claims that you were not at fault.
The Importance of Determining Fault in Other States
While Minnesota is a no-fault state, that doesn’t mean every state is. Nearly 40 states are at-fault states, meaning the insurance company representing the driver who caused the crash is liable for all financial damages. For example, in nearby Wisconsin, if you get into a car accident, the insurance company for the at-fault driver foots the bill for both drivers. This means that all your economic damages will be covered by the at-fault driver’s insurance company up to the limit of that policy.
Determining fault in these kinds of states has two benefits. First, it determines which insurance company will pay for losses and expenses. Second, it determines whether you can sue for additional damages, including non-economic damages. Because it affects who pays, both insurance companies will often try to point the finger at the other driver in this scenario. Our experienced car accident attorneys can investigate with your best interests in mind.
Contact Tyroler Leonard Injury Law Today
Determining who is at fault in a Minnesota car accident requires St. Paul and Minneapolis car accident injury lawyers who understand the law and who know how to conduct investigations. This is a combination you can find at Tyroler Leonard Injury Law.
If you were seriously injured in a car accident in Minnesota, you may be eligible for compensation beyond what your insurance company is offering you. Contact our Minnesota car accident law firm today at (651) 259-1113 to learn whether you are eligible to sue an at-fault party. Because we work on a contingency fee basis, you have no financial risk by hiring us. You don’t pay us anything at the time you hire us, and we don’t collect any fees for representing you unless we win a financial award for you.