If you are injured in an accident but your injuries have been partly caused by your own carelessness, then the amount you recover will be reduced to reflect the fact that you are partly to blame for your injuries. For example, if you are injured in a major road accident but were not wearing a seatbelt at the time of the accident, the Defendant will probably argue that your own negligence in failing to wear a seatbelt contributed to the severity of your injuries. Therefore, if you would ordinarily have recovered £10,000 for your injuries, the reduction for your own contributory negligence could see you recover £7,000 or £8,000 instead.
This principle of contributory negligence has been around in English law for at least the last couple of hundred years. The general principle is that if you are somehow at fault for your injuries, this should not be ignored when deciding how much the Defendant should pay you. The law at the moment is set out in an Act of Parliament which is over sixty years old, namely the Law Reform (Contributory Negligence) Act 1945. This sets out the general principle in section 1(1), which states:
“Where any person suffers damage as the result partly of his own fault and partly of the fault of any other person or persons, a claim in respect of that damage shall not be defeated by reason of the fault of the person suffering the damage, but the damages recoverable in respect thereof shall be reduced to such extent as the court thinks just and equitable having regard to the claimant’s share in the responsibility for the damage”.
In many cases, if you are negligent, your negligence will have contributed to the accident itself. For example, if you are the driver of a car and enter a main road from a side road without checking that the road is clear, and then collide with a speeding vehicle on the main road, the accident itself is at least partly your own fault. However, it is not essential for you to contribute to the accident in order for there to be a finding of contributory negligence. The failure to wear a seat belt can lead to a finding of contributory negligence, yet if you fail to wear a seat belt, this will probably have nothing to do with causing an accident. For example, if you are waiting at red traffic lights and a car hits you from behind, your failure to wear a seatbelt will in no way have caused the accident. What is essential is not that your negligence contributed to the accident, but to your injuries. If you fail to wear a helmet when riding a motorbike, this will probably not cause an accident but it will certainly lead to a finding of contributory negligence against you if you fall off your motorbike in an accident and suffer brain damage.
If you suffer injuries in an accident and you believe that it is possible for the other side to argue that your injuries are in some way your own fault, then you should be prepared for the Defendant to allege contributory negligence against you. There is an obvious reason for Defendants to do this, as it means that they will not have to pay you so much in damages. However, you do not have to accept that you were partly to blame for your injuries if you regard your own actions as reasonable, and one of the solicitors in our directory will be able to advise you about your chances of defending any allegations of contributory negligence that may be made against you.