Legal Question in Personal Injury in Utah

Can I sue a business owner for not putting in Stop signs.

The story is I got into a car accident in a parking lot, the security guard told me that not even a week earlier another accident occurred in the same way because there was no stop sign, this parking lot is weirdly put together, there are many 4 lane intersections in the parking lot without stop signs. Because of parking laws in my state, we were found 30 percent at fault, and they are not paying anything for a car that is going to cost 5,000 dollars to fix. The fact that there were other accidents on this very same parking lot the same way, are we able to prove that this parking lot is not safe.


Asked on 10/01/12, 5:52 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Matthew Driggs Driggs Bills & Day

In Utah you may be able to prevail against a parking lot owner if you can prove that the owner was negligent and that his negligence caused the accident. In Utah a jury would decide between the negligence of all the responsible parties and then apportion a percentage of fault to each party. You prove negligence by showing that the owner did not act reasonable or that the parking lot in question is unreasonably dangerous. The jury would then determine who was negligent and whether or not the negligence cause the accident. For example, the jury might decide that driver #1 was 20% at fault, driver #2 was 40% at fault and the parking lot owner was 40% at fault. In Utah, you add up the negligence of all the other parties and if it is more than 50% they you get to collect the percentage of damages caused by the other peoples negligence. I hope this was helpful and good luck. If you have any other questions, don't hesitate to call us at (801) 363-9982 or email [email protected].

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Answered on 10/04/12, 8:02 am


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