The most common injury we see is caused by someone’s negligence while driving a a car. Todd Johnson hase handled hundreds of Minnesota car accidents over the years and has a great deal of experience in handling such cases. Todd has tried to answer some of the most common questions he hears in the blog. If there is a question you have about Minnesota car accident law that is not answered here, please feel free to contact Todd.
Minnesota, like most states, has a number of traffic laws that attorneys use to determine if a person was negligent in causing an accident. Negligence is simply a fancy name for “at fault”. For example, if a person fails to stop at a stop sign and strikes another car in the intersection, the driver failing to stop is negligent or at fault for that accident. Some times, fault is not so easy to determine. If two people enter an uncontrolled intersection at the same time, the general rule is that the driver to the right has the right of way. But if the driver with the right of way was speeding or otherwise not paying attention, he may lose the right of way. To be able to recover for injuries against another driver, you need to be able to show that the other driver was more at fault for the accident than you were. Thus, even if you are partially at fault for the accident, if the other driver is more at fault you can still bring a claim.
The only people who can make a final determination of who was at fault is a jury but experienced personal injury attorneys can give you a good idea of who is most likely to be at fault for an accident. A person injured in a car accident in Minnesota can generally only bring a claim against another driver for their injuries if they meet a thresh hold or minimum level of injury. For more information on what thresholds are necessary to bring a claim see the section on no-fault.
Don’t worry if the police say you are at fault or no one is at fault for the accident. We have recovered money for people in many cases where the police were wrong about who was at fault for the accident.
Fault is not an issue in who pays for the injured persons medical bills or their lost wages related to the car accident. Therefore, even if you are at fault for an accident, your car insurance company will still pay for your medical expenses related to the accident and will pay 85% of your wage loss up to $250/week.
Still have questions? Please give Todd a call at 1-320-262-3551 or e-mail him to talk without charge or obligation.