But it was the other guy’s fault!

I’ve written before on contributory negligence, but this article does a good job of providing examples and showing how the insurance companies can use this old common law doctrine to deny claims in North Carolina. Periodically, the legislature considers adopting comparative fault, where some responsibility of the incident by the injured person does not completely destroy any right to recover their damages, but it usually gets shot down. Some form of this comparative negligence is used in almost every other state. The federal courts have called the contributory negligence doctrine used by North Carolina to be unfair and antiquated…and that was in 1945.

–Bradley A. Coxe is a practicing attorney in Wilmington, NC who specializes in Personal Injury, Medical Malpractice, Contract and Real Estate disputes and all forms of Civil Litigation. Please contact him at (910) 772-1678.