What If I Was Partially at Fault for the Car Accident?
Carabin Shaw is one of the leading personal injury law firms in Texas. They have extensive experience in accident cases, focusing on securing compensation for clients’ medical bills, property damage, and pain and suffering.
You may still be able to recover money, even if part of the crash was your fault. Texas does not slam the door on an injured driver who made a mistake. As long as you are found no more than 50% responsible, you can still collect compensation, though the amount is reduced by your share of the blame. That is exactly why insurance companies work so hard to pin as much fault on you as they can. Our San Antonio car accident lawyers fight to keep your percentage low and protect what you are owed.
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Texas Follows Modified Comparative Fault
Texas uses a rule called modified comparative fault, also known as proportionate responsibility. Under it, each person involved in a crash is assigned a percentage of the fault, and those percentages add up to 100. You can recover damages as long as your share is 50% or less. Cross into 51% or more, and the law bars you from recovering anything at all. This single line, the 51% bar, is often the whole fight in a shared-fault case, which is why your percentage matters so much.
How Your Percentage Reduces Your Recovery
When you are partly at fault but still under the bar, your compensation is reduced by your percentage. If your damages total $100,000 and a jury finds you 20% responsible, you recover $80,000. At 40% fault, the same claim pays $60,000. Every percentage point the insurance company can shift onto you lowers what they have to pay, so the difference between 20% and 45% fault can be tens of thousands of dollars. Fighting over those points is real money, not a technicality.
How Fault Gets Assigned
Fault is not fixed by the police report or the insurance adjuster. In a lawsuit, the jury decides each party’s percentage after hearing the evidence. Before that, the adjuster’s opinion drives settlement talks, but it is only an opinion, and it is often slanted toward the insurer’s interest. We treat the question of fault as something to be proven with evidence, not accepted from whoever assigns it first. The crash report is a starting point, not the verdict.
Shared-fault rules work the same way for crashes in Austin.
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Why Insurance Companies Try to Blame You
The insurance company has a direct financial reason to make you look more at fault than you are: every percentage point they move onto you is money they keep. Adjusters may ask leading questions, request a recorded statement, or seize on an offhand apology to build a case that you share the blame. Some will argue you were speeding, distracted, or could have avoided the crash with no real evidence behind it. Recognizing these tactics is the first step to defeating them.
Common Situations Where Fault Is Shared
Shared fault comes up often. Two drivers may both have been speeding, one driver turning left may meet another running a yellow light, or a lane-change crash may leave both drivers pointing fingers. Even in a rear-end collision, the lead driver can be assigned some fault for a sudden stop or a broken brake light. These are the cases where a careful reconstruction of what each driver did changes the percentages, and with them the value of your claim.
What Not to Do After the Crash
In the hours and days after a wreck, a few mistakes can raise the fault assigned to you. Do not apologize or say the crash was your fault at the scene, even out of courtesy, because it can be twisted into an admission. Do not give the other driver’s insurer a recorded statement before talking to a lawyer. Stick to the facts in any report, get medical care promptly, and let the evidence establish what happened rather than your best guess under stress.
How We Work to Lower Your Share of Fault
Reducing your percentage of fault is some of the most valuable work we do. Our San Antonio auto accident attorneys gather the evidence that shows the other driver’s larger role: witness accounts, video, vehicle data, and reconstruction. We counter the insurer’s assumptions with facts and push back when an adjuster inflates your share without support. Because every point matters, we treat the fight over your percentage as central to the case, not an afterthought.
Do Not Assume You Were at Fault
Many injured people talk themselves out of a valid claim because they assume the crash was their fault. What feels like your mistake may be only a small part of the picture, or may trace back to something the other driver did first, like stopping short, cutting you off, or driving with no lights at night. Fault is a legal conclusion based on all the evidence, not a feeling you have in the moment. Before you decide you have no case, let a lawyer look at the facts.
Talk to Our San Antonio Car Accident Lawyers
Being partly at fault does not mean you have no claim, and it does not mean you should accept whatever blame the insurance company assigns. Our San Antonio car accident attorneys will work to keep your percentage low and your recovery high. Call Carabin Shaw at (210) 222-2288 for a free consultation. You pay nothing unless we win your case.