Contributory Liability in Ireland

In simple terms, contributory liability is where you take partial responsibility for the accident leading to your personal injury. Contributory liability may also be known as contributory negligence, partial liability, or partial negligence, but they are all one and the same.

You have contributed to the accident where you broke a leg or suffered soft tissue injuries. Your contribution does not mean you are entirely responsible for the personal injury, and the percentage of your liability may reduce your compensation.

Say you are knocked off your bike on a winter’s evening by a car coming too close to the cycle lane. The driver has breached their duty of care to you, but did the fact that you didn’t have lights on the bike contribute to the accident?

In these cases, the two sides may agree on a percentage of contributory liability, such as 60:40, where your compensation is reduced by 40%. You accept your part of the blame and receive 60% of the agreed compensation payment.

Contributory liability may not always be as straightforward, but O’Brien & Company personal injury solicitors in Dublin will be at your side when making the claim.

The implications of being partly at fault for an accident are that you accept your share of the blame, and your compensation payment is reduced accordingly. You were the one who didn’t have your seatbelt on when you were hit by the other car, and you may need to take some of the blame.

You may not receive the full compensation that would usually be paid in similar circumstances, but you do receive a payment, reduced by your contribution.

One implication of you being partly responsible for an accident is that the defendant will, in most cases, fight your personal injury claim*. The fight, usually taken up by the insurance company, may prolong your claim and could result in the claim going to court.

A good personal injury solicitor has been here before, will know what the other side is up to, and can advise you on what to do next.

The common claims involving contributory negligence in Ireland range from a personal injury in a workplace accident to the road traffic accident personal injury.

You make the claim for your injury and losses, but your acceptance of partial responsibility may reduce the compensation.

Types of claims seen involving contributory negligence:

The pedestrian injured while walking on the road may have contributed to their personal injury by not wearing reflective clothing or by not using the available footpath.

The driver may still be responsible for injuring the walker on the road, as they could be driving too fast for the area, or were driving without due care for other road users.

A claim could be reduced by 25% or more if it is shown that the pedestrian did not take care by walking in the road.

A motorcyclist, by law, must wear a helmet when on the public road and could be deemed partially responsible for any injury when hit by a careless driver if not wearing one.

The broken cheekbones or cracked skull may not have happened if they were wearing a helmet, but the accident may not have happened at all if the driver wasn’t speeding at the time.

Cases of motorcyclists being injured when not wearing a helmet have seen contributory negligence of 40% or more in some cases.

The employee injured when not following safety guidelines comes up in many personal injury claims* in Ireland. In many workplace accident cases, both the employee and the employer have breached their duty of care, resulting in injury.

The faulty piece of machinery may have caused the eye injury, but if the employee had been wearing protective goggles as supplied, the injury may not have been as severe.

An employer may try to put all the blame on the employee, but partial responsibility means both sides played their part.

Another common contributory liability claim* in Ireland is the cyclist injured when they fail to stop at the lights. Cyclists often try to skip the lights by gambling that other drivers will see them, but accidents happen, and the cyclist comes out second best.

Contributory liability here can put some of the blame on the cyclist for skipping the lights, but responsibility too lies with the driver for maybe moving off too quickly or being distracted when driving.

The two sides can reach a contributory liability agreement depending on the circumstances and the evidence provided.

Slip, trip and fall accidents are common places where contributory negligence rears its head. In the case of someone slipping on a wet floor of a closed bathroom, the injured person may still have a breach of duty of care claim.

There are two sides to every story and this is where contributory liability comes into play in compensation claims. The injured party may share some of the blame, but the owner of the premises will too, for not fixing the problem or for not locking the bathroom door.

Contributory liability can be a tricky area of law to negotiate, but the right personal injury solicitor can guide you through it from start to finish.

The case may end with you taking your share of responsibility, but you will still get a share of the compensation due.

Call O’Brien & Company personal injury solicitors in Dublin today and get started on your compensation claim.

We have years of experience in personal injury compensation claims* and are well-versed in Contributory Liability. Our teams will fight for your claim to get compensation for an injury that was not your fault, even if you are partially responsible for what happened.

O’Brien & Company Solicitors have the team in place in Dublin to handle your compensation claim and will be with you at every step of the process.

Contact O’Brien & Company Solicitors in Dublin to start a personal injury compensation claim* today.