Louisiana follows a pure comparative negligence doctrine. This means that if you are partly to blame for the crash your damages will be reduced by a percentage corresponding to your share of fault.
Baton Rouge, LA – While traffic rules are the same all over the country, every state has its own insurance laws which apply in a car accident claim. To recover the damages you are entitled to your best option is to look up experienced Baton Rouge car accident lawyers. They will tell you what your rights are under Louisiana law and how to proceed with your claim.
Let’s have a look at some laws that may impact the outcome of your accident claim.
What is the statute of limitations for a car accident lawsuit?
The statute of limitations is the time you are allowed to file a lawsuit and in Louisiana, it’s rather short. While in most states you have 2 or 3 years to sue, in Louisiana you have just one year.
The clock starts ticking at the moment of the crash.
In most cases, when you’re injured in an accident you’ll start by filing a claim against the other driver’s insurance. There will be a lot of paperwork, legal-wrangling and plenty of bargaining. You need to keep your eyes on the clock because you may also need time to prepare a lawsuit before the one-year deadline.
How does comparative negligence work?
Louisiana follows a pure comparative negligence doctrine. This means that if you are partly to blame for the crash your damages will be reduced by a percentage corresponding to your share of fault.
Just to give you an example – if you were hit by a drunk driver, you may think he’s solely to blame. However, if the insurance adjuster determines you were driving at 68 mph in a 65 mph zone, that is a traffic rule violation. The adjuster may assign you 10% of the blame, so your damages will be reduced by 10%. In a minor accident, when you get less than $10,000 in damages, that would be $1,000. Not much. In a serious accident, where your claim may be worth $200,000 you stand to lose $20,0000. And so on.
Bottom line, if there’s anything the insurance adjuster may use to reduce the value of your claim, talk to knowledgeable Louisiana accident lawyers and let them negotiate blame.
Who can you sue in Louisiana?
You can, of course, sue the driver responsible. You also need to know that Louisiana is a direct action state, which allows you to name an insurance company in your lawsuit. It is up to your lawyers to decide whom you should sue, but in many cases, it may be wiser to name the insurance provider in your lawsuit, and we’ll explain why.
If the driver that hit you is just a regular Joe, with a mortgage to pay and children to feed, the jury will be inclined to be more sympathetic to him. On the other hand, if you name the insurer as a defendant, no jury will show any sympathy for a company that makes huge profits year after year. The jury will be on your side and you can expect larger damages.
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