Ask a Lawyer - Archive

I was injured in an car wreck and the other driver got a ticket for an illegal lane change. Is the other driver automatically at fault?

Hello, and thank you for your question. Most auto accident injury claims are based on a legal principle called negligence. Negligence means acting in a manner contrary to the manner in which an ordinarily prudent person acts. Proving a successful personal injury auto accident claim thus often requires proof of negligence. The fact that a driver was issued a traffic ticket or citation may be used as proof of negligence, as traffic laws are thought to define what actions constitute ordinary prudence and traffic tickets are basically the police's recognition that the driver did not act accordingly.

However, the driver who was issued the ticket may counter by contesting the ticket itself or by presenting a valid reason for why the traffic law at issue was broken.