Negligence in North Carolina requires jury trials

North Carolina remains one of only four states that recognizes contributory negligence in tort cases. Tort cases involve the injury to another because of negligence. Negligence is the failure to act in a reasonable manner in the same circumstances. Another way to say negligence is carelessness. If someone is careless, the tort law of negligence says that someone should be accountable for their carelessness – not necessarily in N.C.

In North Carolina, the careless company can try to blame it on the injured person. Even though the careless company has insurance to pay for the claim, the careless company will say that the injured person could have or should have done something different. In other words, say that the injured person was contributory negligent. As we all know, it is easy to come in after the fact and say something should have been done differently. As they say, hindsight is 20/20.

You can always place some “blame” on the injured person. The insurance company likes to argue that no matter how careless the careless company is, if the injured person does anything or fails to do anything, that person gets nothing. Let me give you an example. Suppose you are driving along and see a stoplight. The light is red so you come to a controlled stop. As you wait for the light to turn green, someone dialing a cell phone doesn’t see you and rear-ends your car. Pretty simple, right? You followed the rules and someone else was careless. Not so fast. The insurance company says why didn’t you see the car coming in your rear view mirror. Why didn’t you blow your horn? The insurance company refuses to pay for your damage and you have to go to court. It then falls to a jury of 12 people to decide. You then see how this plays out.

Forty-six other states have done away with contributory negligence. Instead those states use some form of comparative fault. Comparative fault is more like how we do things in life. A jury decides the percentages of fault. If the jury determines that it will take $1 million dollars to make up for what happened to the injured party but the injured party was 20 percent at fault, the injured party gets $1 million less 20 percent or $800,000. It is a fairer system and one day the powerful insurance companies will no longer be able to control the General Assembly and N.C. will have comparative fault. The insurance companies love contributory negligence. It provides an argument when none should exist and tries to make the jury focus on the injured party and not the careless company.

Because of contributory negligence, we must try many cases, especially those where the injuries are tragic. Insurance companies use contributory negligence to shield careless companies increasing the risks and costs to us all. Instead of the careless company (or its insurance) paying for the injuries and a lifetime of care for the injured person, in many cases we taxpayers have to pay. Until N.C. decides to help its citizens, we must rely on the jury to see past the claim of contributory negligence. Fortunately, a jury of 12 people can reason and use their common sense to see what is important. It is not what the perfect person with 20/20 hindsight would do. It is what a reasonable person (like the injured person) would do under the circumstances. We can’t depend on others (like those who make the laws in Raleigh), we must depend on jurors.