Joint liability is a condition where at least two people or parties are liable for an individual’s injury. If more than one party is found to be responsible for a person’s injuries, all liable parties are going to have to pay certain amounts of money to compensate a victim for an injury. The amount they each have to pay depends on how liable for the injury the judge sees them as being; the more liable a person is, the more he/she will be forced to compensate the injured party.
There are many cases where joint liability can appear. For example, joint liability can be found when two acts that are not related combine to cause an injury. The main case where this joint liability can occur is when a common duty was owed by the liable parties to the victim. This common duty would involve making sure that the victim was protected at all times.
Here is an example of how joint liability works in a personal injury case. Let’s say that a person is injured at a pedestrian crosswalk after being hit by a car that crossed an intersection due to a faulty traffic light. The victim is entitled to sue both parties. The victim can first sue the driver of the vehicle that struck the victim. However, the city organization that was responsible for handling the traffic light can be sued as well.
An important concern about joint liability is when one party is not able to pay off its damages. If this occurs, the other parties in the case will have to pay off those remaining damages. This happens regardless of whether or not those parties were ordered to pay those extra damages.
A person who is injured in a joint liability case can choose to sue all liable parties in the same lawsuit. The compensation that the victim will get will be divided between the parties that were involved based on their level of liability. This is considered to be a useful option because it may be easier to collect damages when multiple parties are involved.
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