Managing Personal Injury Cases With Multiple Parties

A personal injury case that features multiple parties can be complex. In cases such as multi-car pileups or accidents in which a truck driver and a trucking company are involved, it can be challenging to know how to file an insurance claim or seek compensation for any losses.

In scenarios like these, support from an experienced personal injury lawyer can help, and there are additional actions you may take to navigate these cases. What is the best way to manage personal injury cases with multiple parties? In this article, our experienced personal injury lawyers in Ottawa, Whitby, and Toronto will explore how you can do this successfully.

What Are Multi-Party Personal Injury Cases?

Multi-party personal injury cases are cases in which multiple parties are involved when someone suffers an injury. This can occur when two or more people cause an injury during a negligent act. When defining multi-party personal injury cases, it’s worth considering some common scenarios that fall into this category.

One example of this type of case includes multi-car pileups. In multi-car pileups, three or more vehicles may be travelling in the same lane, and in the same direction. Assigning fault in this case can be challenging because the liability can be split according to the collisions and positions of the vehicles.

Even when the vehicles are travelling in the same lane and the front vehicle is rearended by the rear vehicle, there are many factors that must be considered before determining that the rear vehicle is 100% at fault. For example, was there a reason the first vehicle had to abruptly stop?

What about if only the vehicle at the back is moving during the collision? Do the vehicles in the middle and the one at the front bear no fault? These questions require further investigation and review of the police report, witness statements and more.

Solving complex cases like these, therefore, requires extensive legal experience, such as from a personal injury lawyer in Toronto and the right actions are required from the accident victim to help handle any legal complications.

Determining Liability

In a personal injury case that involves several defendants, the first complex issue is to find out the role of each defendant in causing the injury. This requires looking at the evidence, which can be gathered by documenting the incident thoroughly, creating a timeline of the events that occurred within the incident, looking closely at the breach of duty of care (such as in slip and fall incidents), and then proving causation.

Timelines can help lawyers focus on any potential omissions in each defendant’s description of events, and knowledge of the duty of care can help them show whether a defendant’s actions aligned with the expected standard of care they owed a plaintiff.

However, a personal injury law firm must also apportion liability to those who bear fault. This may fall under the category of comparative negligence, where not just one party is at fault. In situations where the victim suffers injuries because of two other individuals’ negligence, the court must make a ruling on the percentage of the fault that each party bears.

Gathering Evidence

To begin determining liability, a personal injury lawyer must start with comprehensive evidence collection. If the case goes to court in a scenario when a defendant denies liability or responsibility, evidence collection can be impactful in convincing a jury regarding fault.

In this case, several types of evidence are needed, which can include the following:

• Accident reports: Accident reports are generated by the police after arriving on the motor vehicle accident scene. This can be a valuable piece of evidence when making a car accident lawsuit or when making an insurance claim from an insurance company.
• Witness statements: You will need to gather the names and contact information of witnesses and collect witness statements at the scene of the incident. A witness can be any individual who saw the accident take place (an eyewitness). A personal injury lawyer may present their statements as testimony to back up or prove their personal injury claim.
• Expert testimonies: The specialized knowledge of an expert witness can contribute to a testimony that helps the judge understand the technical details of a case. For example, a medical witness testimony or a liability expert testimony can prove something about the case that the court may not fully comprehend.

It’s important to preserve and organize the evidence you collect so nothing is missing, and your personal injury lawyer can present it if the case goes to court. Physical evidence can change over time, which is why you will need to take accurate pictures of the evidence in its original state at the time of the incident. For instance, in a personal injury case involving a vehicle collision, you may take photographs of the position of the vehicles as they were immediately after the impact.

Coordinating Legal Actions

A personal injury lawyer can help you navigate a multi-party personal injury case, doing so with a few specific approaches. They may begin by identifying all of the potential defendants to consider the entire scope of liability. For instance, in a slip and fall personal injury case, they may identify whether the contractor, property owner, or other negligent parties are potential defendants.

Personal injury lawyers can then focus on determining the degree to which two or more people are at fault or negligent. They can adhere to the Negligence Act and consider whether defendants are jointly and severally liable to the accident victim. Joint and several liability plays the role of determining whether each defendant is at fault for the whole amount of damages and dictates whether a plaintiff can claim the full compensation from any one defendant.

Personal injury lawyers may also consolidate separate cases or proceedings under Rule 6 of the Ontario Rules of Civil Procedure. They can file a motion to consolidate all claims to eliminate inconsistent rulings and then manage the claims with a consolidated discovery process.

At the same time, lawyers need to negotiate settlement offers. Since multiple defendants are involved, the lawyer will need to work tirelessly to balance how the overall claim will be affected by the settlements. As skilled negotiators, they can navigate these settlements with multiple insurers using the methods mentioned below.

Insurance Company Negotiation

There can be challenges with insurance company negotiation, particularly when there are multiple insurance adjusters. Challenges such as the unique priorities and financial interests of each insurance company, disagreements related to liability, and cooperation difficulties are all factors to consider. Lowball offers and delays in settlements can also mean that the case might not be resolved in a timely way.

But liaising with separate adjusters and knowing which insurance policies cover the specific accident are two key crucial steps for successful claim negotiation. Managing this will require the lawyer to clearly determine the specific nature of each party’s liability and put forth a comprehensive claim to each insurance adjuster. They’ll need to submit evidence to back up your claim for compensation.

When negotiating, personal injury lawyers will also need to demand just compensation that covers all damages. They should both counter low offers by referring to the gathered evidence and even negotiate in terms of the apportionment or allocation of responsibility. This can be done following a liability analysis and is best achieved by coordinating communication to ensure each adjuster’s payout matches the apportionment of fault.

Pursuing Fair Compensation

Plaintiff compensation needs to be just. Experienced lawyers will aim to ensure you receive the maximum compensation for your losses, and this requires them to assess and value the damages incurred. But when there are multiple plaintiffs or accident victims in a mass tort case, this can require a different, unique approach.

For example, the lawyer will need to corroborate injuries to ensure the claims align with the incident. In some cases, plaintiffs may have separate counsel. So, to help with this process, lawyers may aim to coordinate investigations or rely on the expert testimony of a medical professional, which can boost the efficiency of the process and the reliability of the evidence. They may also utilize a coordinated legal approach to make sure the legal arguments they put forth are consistent.

Legal representation is key to pursuing fair compensation when a case goes to court. With an experienced personal injury lawyer, all plaintiffs will have the right support when navigating the legal system. With the experience and knowledge of a lawyer supporting them, plaintiffs are more likely to receive a just settlement based on the specific damages.

Seek Professional Legal Assistance from Ristich Law to Navigate Multi-Party Personal Injury Cases

Multi-party personal injury cases can be complex. They can be particularly challenging without the correct legal representation and guidance, which is why we advise seeking the support of experienced lawyers to assist you during this difficult circumstance.

Our personal injury lawyers in Whitby, Ottawa, and Toronto are here and ready to support you in your multi-party personal injury case. We offer free consultations and will provide advice for your specific case. Seek professional legal assistance from Ristich Law to navigate multi-party personal injury cases.