In a perfect world, it would always be easy to tell who was at fault in a car accident. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case. Speed, weather, driver distraction, and a lot of other factors play roles. That ambiguity can affect how much compensation you can recover.

How It Works in Illinois

Illinois follows what’s called a “modified comparative negligence rule”. That rule means an accident doesn’t have to be 100% a single person’s fault. Both drivers can share responsibility depending on what happened and how.

Here’s how it works:

  • If a court finds that you’re partially at fault, your compensation is reduced by the same amount. For instance, 20% fault with $100,000 in damages would mean you’d recover $80,000.
  • If you’re found to be 50% or more at fault, you recover nothing.

Why Does It Get Contested?

It’s in an insurer’s best interest to argue that you are as responsible for the accident as possible. Remember that insurers are for-profit companies, and their profit depends on paying out as little as possible. A few percentage points of shifted blame can reduce their payout. Nudge your fault from 30% to 51%, and their obligation disappears entirely.

This is why the details of an accident matter so much. Whether you were speeding, had the right of way, signaled, or whether road conditions played a role, all of it feeds into the fault calculation. These kinds of adjustments happen almost immediately after accidents on busy roads around Geneva, Batavia, and St. Charles, often before you’re really aware of what’s happening.

Evidence Is Your Best Defense

If you’re involved in an accident, the steps you take afterward affect the evidentiary record that will define your case. Get photos of vehicle positions, skid marks, traffic signals, and weather conditions. Talk to witnesses, and when it’s available, get a copy of the police report.

Medical records matter, too. Get treatment as soon as you can, because anything left out of your medical timeline gives insurers room to argue that your injuries weren’t serious, or weren’t caused by the accident.

What an Attorney Can Do That You Can’t

Fault determinations aren’t made in a vacuum. An experienced personal injury attorney knows how insurers build their fault narratives and how to counter them. They can work with accident reconstruction experts, analyze police reports, identify applicable traffic laws, and push back against attempts to inflate your share of the blame.

You don’t have to accept the fault percentage an insurance company assigns you. In Illinois, that number is negotiable.

If you’ve been injured in an auto accident in the Geneva area, O’Brien Law is here to help. Reach out today for a free consultation.