Do I have a car accident case if the police said I was at fault?

The short answer is yes, you may have a case against the other driver. Many of our clients are completely blameless for the accident that caused their injuries.

Every day, thousands of people are injured in rear-end collisions across the country. In a typical rear-end accident, the vehicle that is rear-ended is lawfully stopped or slowing due to traffic in front of them.

In more complicated crashes, it’s more difficult to determine the level of fault for each driver. Ultimately, a jury, not the police officer, will be asked to assign fault for each driver in a bad accident.

A jury will decide how much you’re at fault

Under Illinois law, an individual injured in a car crash may recover damages for their injuries as long as the injured party was less than fifty percent (50%) at fault for the crash.

Let’s say a jury determines that you were 20% liable for the accident. As a result, the total amount of money awarded to you is reduced by 20%.

How does the citation affect my case?

Here’s an example to illustrate how it works. Vehicle 1 makes a left-hand turn at an intersection and is t-boned by Vehicle 2. The driver of Vehicle 1 is severely injured. The driver of Vehicle 1 claims that she had a green arrow at the time of the crash. The driver of Vehicle 2 claims that she had a straight green light.

The police officer that arrived at the scene issues the driver of Vehicle 1 a ticket for “failing to yield the right of way when making a left-hand turn.”

At first glance, it may seem like the driver of Vehicle 1 doesn’t have much of a case. In a situation like this, the driver of Vehicle 1 needs to hire an experienced accident lawyer to investigate the crash.

Sometimes, the police officer doesn’t have all of the evidence before issuing a citation

At Shannon Law Group, we have had countless cases similar to the one described above. When a case like this one comes into our office, we unleash our investigators immediately. There is a variety of evidence that can help prove your case or disprove the statements of the other driver, including video footage from a nearby business that may have captured the crash; dashboard cameras; eyewitness statements, etc.

A red-light camera at the intersection may show that Vehicle 2 actually blew threw a red light. Her phone records may show that she was on her phone when she blew through the intersection. These pieces of evidence are not available to responding police officers when they issue citations immediately after a crash.

Oftentimes, police officers investigating a crash do a thorough job of analyzing the evidence they have available to them at the scene of the accident. Other times, particularly when the crash doesn’t involve a fatality or immediate serious injury, an investigating officer will not turn over every leaf to figure out why a crash happened.

A few years ago, we had a client who was injured in a rear-end collision. She told us that she felt two impacts within a few seconds of each other. The driver right behind our client confirmed that she rear-ended our client and then was rear-ended herself by a third vehicle. The driver of the third-vehicle corroborated that version of events.

The police officer, however, reported the incident as two separate crashes fifteen minutes apart. Sometimes, police officers make mistakes.

Seriously injured in a car accident near Chicago? Contact us today.

If you were seriously injured in a car crash, it is absolutely worth it to discuss your potential case with an experienced attorney, even if the investigating police officer issued you a ticket for the crash.

Our experienced Chicago car accident lawyers are ready to help you. Call us at (312) 578-9501 or fill out the form at the bottom of the page to get started.