Ohio is one of the majority of states that has retained the traditional “tort” or “at fault” basis for recovery for automobile accident victims. Ohio does have minimum insurance coverage requirements. As of the writing of this article every car owner must have $12,500.00 coverage for bodily injury per person up to a total of $25,000.00 per accident. Additionally every car owner must have at least $7500.00 property damage coverage. These are the minimum insurance requirements. The minimum amounts of insurance coverage are not enough to cover the damages for many automobile accident injuries. To protect themselves from being under insured in the case of a car accident many people carry much more than these minimum amounts of insurance.
As stated earlier, the right to sue for damages resulting from automobile accidents in Ohio is based on the tort system. A “tort” is a civil wrong. In car accidents the most common tort relied upon is negligence. If you suffer personal injuries in an accident as a result of the negligence of another you can recover any damages that reasonably flow from that accident. Those damages can include compensation for pain and suffering, loss of earnings or earning capacity and medical and other out of pocket expenses.
This means that determining who is at fault for an automobile accident will Best auto accident attorneys nashville determine if you can recover damages for the injuries you suffered as a result of the accident. Given that a car accident occurs in the United States every ten seconds it is not surprising that car accidents are the most common type of personal injury litigation. For this reason it is important that you know your legal rights if you are injured in an automobile accident.
While blame for an accident often is fairly straight forward there are also many accidents where fault is not so clear. Often fault for an accident will be split between the drivers and is not totally one driver’s fault. It is also important to know that “fault” or “negligence” is a legal issue based on the facts. It is also common that two drivers involved in the same accident have differing opinions as to what happened.
In addition to these types of car accidents there are also many situations where someone who is not even in a car involved in the car accident is negligent and responsible for damages. Faulty repairs by car mechanics that cause an accident can create liability on the mechanic and/or his employer. A tavern might be liable for damages if a car accident is caused by a drunk driver that was over served in that tavern. This does not mean the drunk driver is not liable. He or she will still be responsible for the car accident and the damages. The liability for the car accident of the tavern is in addition to, and not in lieu of, the legal responsibility of the drunk driver. These are just two examples of p