Legal Question in Traffic Law in Virginia

Rearended on I-95

I was traveling along I-95 after work one day in August 25,2005 when I was rearended by a driver from Florida that keep driving after he hit my vehicle. There were other drivers that stopped him and talked to the police. Iwas told by my lawyer VA is a at fault state. I was driving 72 mph at the time of the impact from the other driver. I was trying to get out his way at the time after pasting the car he ran up behind me and hit my car and keep on going. I was out of work for over a year due to back pain from standing for any period of time.


Asked on 7/12/07, 12:47 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Michael Hendrickson Law Office Michael E. Hendrickson

Re: Rearended on I-95

What your lawyer apparently was trying to tell you with regard to Virginia being an "at fault state" is that Virginia adheres to the so-called doctrine of contributory negligence, meaning that a plaintiff must clear him or herself of any charges of contributory negligence in any suit to recover damages for negligence and that if a defendant can show that such a plaintiff even slightly contributed to the legal or proximate cause of the accident which gave rise to the plaintiff's claim(s), he or she will not be able to recover any damages in such a lawsuit premised on the alleged negligence of even a mostly culpable defendant.

It should be noted, however, that whether or not this particular doctrine would necessarily be applicable to your particular case is not at all clear from the facts which you've outlined and would be an issue for the trier of fact to determine if the matter went to trial.

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Answered on 7/12/07, 7:30 pm


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