Liability When Injured by a Vehicle Accident in a Parking Lot

When you are on the open roads and a vehicle comes out of nowhere and hits you, liability is usually clear. However, you may not think so if you are in a parking lot. Luckily for you, it is not always difficult to determine liability in a parking lot-related accident. If somebody else’s negligence caused the accident, then they will be at-fault. In fact, negligence is at the center of all personal injury cases: Did somebody fail to exercise a given duty of care? If so, then the injured person has a right to compensation under the state’s laws.

Difficulty of Proving Fault in a Parking Lot Accident

Sometimes, you run into some issues in a parking lot accident. For instance, traffic lanes may not be easily designated and the parking lot itself could be poorly designed. This makes room for error, as it could be unclear what lane the driver should be driving in. In other cases, you may have an example of outright negligence, where a witness saw the other driver texting, which lead to the accident. You may also run into issues if the police in that jurisdiction do not write tickets for parking lot accidents, because a ticket that states clear negligence can be the most useful tool in your case.

To document exactly what happened, you should not only look for witnesses, but you should also photograph and video the accident scene, as it may be useful to the court to see exactly how the parking lot is set up and the damage that was done. Many parking lots also have surveillance cameras that can record accidents in real time. If you have injuries from the accident, the videos can be subpoenaed as evidence to the court.

In some of the most minor parking lot accidents, your injuries can still have a lasting effect. You could end up with whiplash, cuts, bruises, and more. Because of this, it is important to have an experienced personal injury attorney on your side. Call us today at Maggiano, DiGirolamo & Lizzi for more information.