At Munro Byrd, we regularly handle personal injury cases that involve multiple defendant drivers. Such cases involve our personal injury clients suffering injuries as the result of more than one person being negligent during the same event. It isn’t uncommon in car accidents or trucking accidents for our clients to be hit by more than one vehicle following too closely, speeding, or otherwise failing to pay proper attention to the road and conditions. In such instances, our personal injury clients often wonder who to pursue the case against, whose insurance should pay first, and whether they can sue everyone responsible when there is no pre-case settlement.
Under Virginia law, personal injury victims are entitled to bring a case against more than one person who acted negligently in a chain of events causing their crash. Virginia law is clear in that there can be more than one “proximate cause” of an event. When there are multiple defendants, a jury is not allowed to compare the fault of each defendant, such as by percentage. Unless a jury finds from the evidence that one defendant caused an injury to the plaintiff distinct from injuries caused by another defendant, then each is jointly responsible for the full liability. In other words, each negligent defendant who was a proximate cause of at least part of the plaintiff’s injuries can be individually liable for 100% of the resulting damages.
An obvious question: How does this situation play out in personal injury cases? When we have personal injury cases that involve situations with more than one negligent driver, we will often file suit against all potentially responsible parties. We will then conduct discovery on behalf of our personal injury clients to confirm whether and how each party is responsible, and proceed to a trial with the plan to ask the jury to find them all jointly liable for the full damages.
What about if each defendant denies responsibility for our client’s personal injuries, and blames each other? That only helps develop our client’s case by putting additional negligence evidence in front of a jury, and shows that a particular defendant refuses to accept responsibility by blaming someone else. As a general rule, we find that this type of finger pointing in personal injury cases only helps our clients—everyone agrees SOMEONE owes our client—and turns off juries against the defendant pointing the finger. Regardless, it increases the odds a jury finds at least one if not both defendants liable a verdict in our client’s favor.
At Munro Byrd, we enjoy trying personal injury cases, and aren’t afraid of proving responsibility for personal injuries in complicated cases involving multiple defendants. We try cases before juries and judges throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia. We are here to help you with your case, and that begins by answering your questions. What’s my claim worth? Should I hire a lawyer? What does a lawsuit cost me? We answer these questions and more.
We cannot promise similar results in all cases. We litigate such cases throughout Virginia, including in Roanoke City and County, Montgomery County (Christiansburg, Blacksburg), Lynchburg, Abingdon, Martinsville, Rocky Mount, Wytheville, Bedford, Covington, Harrisonburg, Richmond, Charlottesville, Lexington, or Staunton. We practice in rural areas like Bath County, Campbell County, Giles County, Craig County, Smyth County, Alleghany County, Pulaski County, Franklin County, Campbell County, Carroll County, Patrick County, Floyd County, Stuart County, Pittsylvania County, Henry County, and Wythe County. We also litigate in Virginia federal courts, including those divisions in Roanoke, Abingdon, Danville, Harrisonburg, Charlottesville, Alexandria, and Richmond.