How Seatbelt Use May Affect Your Lawsuit

Everybody knows that it is always a good idea to wear your seat belt while in a vehicle, whether you are the driver or a passenger. If an accident occurs, your life can be saved by a seatbelt. Unfortunately, situations arise where a seat belt is not always worn. If you are in a car accident and find yourself paralyzed, and you were not wearing your seatbelt during the accident, do not let this stop you from pursuing legal action.

There are many scenarios in the court of law where your seatbelt usage is not a critical part of the equation. In legal cases involving car accidents and SCI, the judge is always looking at who is ultimately to blame for the situation, meaning that seatbelt usage doesn’t always make or break a case.

With spinal cord injuries being so expensive, from outpatient rehabilitation costs to purchasing equipment and home renovations, it is always in your best interest to contact a lawyer and discover if legal action may help you recover financial compensation. With such a catastrophic injury, it is typically incredibly difficult to pay for everything independently.

Discovering Who Is at Fault

Whenever someone sues because they have sustained a spinal cord injury, they will only have success in court if they can prove that someone, or some product, is to blame. When you can successfully prove this, you can show that an outside force is at fault for your injury. Fault can be due to many things, such as negligence, defective products, or intentional malice.

Negligence is a very common claim in a personal injury lawsuit. In negligent driving car accident cases, an individual can fail to perform their duty behind the wheel, either through bad driving or not following the rules of the road. Reckless driving is by far one of the number one causes of spinal cord injuries while on the road.
A defective or faulty product can also be to blame for an injury; for example, if the seatbelt in a vehicle did not function properly at the time of the accident, the manufacturer of that product could be found to be at fault. A person’s vehicle can also malfunction in a myriad of ways, which can be used in a court of law. You must, however, be able to prove the malfunction as a fact through solid evidence.

Consider the State’s Seatbelt Lawsuits

The state in which your accident occurred is also an important part of your case. The actual laws on seatbelt usage vary greatly from state to state. It is important to know if the state your injury occurred requires seatbelt use on the road. However, if the person injured was not wearing a seatbelt, and if their state requires seatbelt usage, this does not mean their case cannot move forward. In many cases, the presence of the seatbelt may not have prevented the injury; your lawyer can argue this to help you win your case.

To learn more about the seatbelt laws in your state and if they could affect your case, reach out to an experienced spinal cord injury lawyer today.