Accidents don’t always come with a single villain. Sometimes two or three people mess up at the same time, and you’re the one who gets hurt. Maybe a driver runs a red light while another one is speeding. Or a property owner ignores a hazard while their contractor skips basic safety rules. When blame gets divided among multiple parties, your claim becomes more complicated but also opens up more paths to compensation.
How New York Treats Multiple At-Fault Parties
New York uses pure comparative negligence. That’s a fancy way of saying you can still recover damages even if you share some fault, though your award drops by whatever percentage of blame falls on you. When several defendants contributed to your accident, the state’s joint and several liability rules kick in.
Here’s how it works. Any defendant who’s more than 50% at fault has to pay the full amount of your economic damages. That includes medical bills, lost wages, and other out-of-pocket costs. It doesn’t matter if they’re 51% responsible or 90% responsible. They’re on the hook for everything. Defendants at 50% or below? They only pay their slice of economic damages.
Non-economic damages like pain and suffering work differently. Every defendant pays only their assigned percentage, regardless of how much fault they carry.
This system protects you. If one defendant can’t pay because they lack insurance or money, you can still collect your bills and lost income from another party who carries more fault.
Common Multi-Party Injury Scenarios
We see shared blame play out across all kinds of cases:
- Intersection crashes: Driver A blows through a red light while Driver B speeds into the intersection, and both actions cause the collision
- Construction accidents: The property owner doesn’t maintain safe conditions, and the contractor ignores basic safety protocols
- Defective product injuries: A manufacturer releases a dangerous product, while the retailer fails to pull it from the shelves after a recall notice
- Store slips and falls: The business creates a hazard through poor maintenance, and their cleaning company makes it worse by using the wrong products
A Cheektowaga personal injury lawyer digs into every potential defendant because each one brings another insurance policy into play. More defendants mean more chances to recover what you’ve lost.
Building Claims Against Multiple Defendants
When we identify several at-fault parties, the investigation gets bigger. We need evidence showing exactly how each defendant’s actions contributed to your injury. That means different proof for different parties.
Take a slip and fall case. If both the property owner and a maintenance company share blame, we’re pulling lease agreements that spell out who’s responsible for what. We get service logs showing missed inspections. We document the hazard with photos and witness statements. For multi-car accidents, we review traffic cameras, grab police reports that note violations, and sometimes bring in reconstruction professionals who can break down fault percentages.
In summary, we start by developing a timeline that demonstrates the role of all parties involved. Defendants then attempt to shift blame onto one another, this infighting helps advance your case. By attempting to blame each other, a court can easily be shown the fact that there were multiple negligent parties.
How Settlements Work With Multiple Defendants
Settlement talks get strategic when you’re dealing with several parties. Insurance companies talk to each other about their exposure. We use those conversations to your advantage.
Sometimes, one defendant settles fast to dodge a trial. Others wait and watch. We structure every settlement carefully to protect your rights against whoever’s left. New York law requires settling parties to pay their fair share, so you don’t get shortchanged just because one insurer wants to close their file.
Hurwitz, Whitcher & Molloy manages the back-and-forth between multiple insurance companies. We make sure no settlement lets a party off the hook too early or cuts into what you can collect from the others.
Taking Multi-Party Cases To Trial
When negotiations stall, litigation forces everyone to show their cards. During discovery, we pull documents from all parties, take depositions, and create exhibits that help a jury understand how multiple screw-ups combined to hurt you.
At trial, jurors get specific instructions on dividing fault. They assign percentages to each defendant based on what they’ve heard and seen. The court enters judgment accordingly. This process holds each party accountable for exactly what they did wrong.
Why Legal Representation Matters In Complex Cases
Multi-party claims aren’t simple. You’re juggling several insurance companies, different legal defenses, and New York’s specific liability rules. Miss a deadline with one defendant, and you might lose that claim entirely. Evidence disappears if you don’t preserve it quickly. Defense teams coordinate their strategies to minimize what they pay.
A Cheektowaga personal injury lawyer tracks every deadline, locks down evidence before it vanishes, and builds claims that hold up against multiple defense attorneys working different angles.
If more than one party caused your injury, we can evaluate what happened, identify everyone who shares responsibility, and go after the full compensation you’re owed from every source available.