There are many defenses to personal injury cases. There are those defenses which “negate” or “deny” liability like mistake of fact and there are also defenses which “avoid” liability such as “affirmative defenses” like assumption of the risk. By raising an affirmative defense, the defendant is asserting that even if the defendant committed all of […]
Many drivers question the extent to which their negligence in a motor vehicle accident affects their recovery in the situation where another driver is clearly at fault to some degree. Thus, the question better phrased is to what extent does a driver’s contributory negligence affect any recovery in a motor vehicle accident? Pennsylvania follows the […]
Pennsylvania originally adopted a comparative negligence statute which became effective on September 7, 1976. Prior to this, Pennsylvania allowed the defense of contributory negligence under which there could be no recovery if any negligence of the plaintiff contributed to the injury. The test for contributory negligence in Pennsylvania was whether the plaintiff’s “negligence contributed in […]
