How Contributory Negligence Can Impact Your Virginia Medical Malpractice Claim
Contributory negligence isn’t a word you most likely use in your everyday vocabulary. It’s amazing how many legal terms you learn when researching information relating to your case.
If you have been harmed by medical malpractice in Virginia, then you need to familiarize yourself with contributory negligence. Virginia is one of only a few states in the country that still uses this centuries-old law. Contributory negligence can be defined as “a doctrine of common law that if a person was injured in part due to his/her own negligence (his/her negligence “contributed” to the accident), the injured party would not be entitled to collect any damages (money) from another party who supposedly caused the accident.” This definition basically means that if you were careless in any way, which contributed to your injury, you probably won’t be able to recover damages.
Under contributory negligence, your doctor could be 99 percent responsible for your injury and you might only be 1 percent responsible, but you still won’t be able to recover a dime. This doctrine hardly seems fair, but it is the law.
For more information regarding Virginia medical malpractice lawsuits and why these cases are so difficult to win, order a copy of Ben Glass’s book, Why Most Medical Malpractice Victims Never Recover a Dime.