After a car accident in Shepherdsville or anywhere in Bullitt County, insurance adjusters sometimes try to shift blame onto the injured driver. Understanding how Kentucky law calculates fault can help you protect your right to fair compensation.
Kentucky’s pure comparative fault standard
Kentucky follows a pure comparative fault system. Under this rule, a court or jury assigns a percentage of fault to every party involved in the crash, and any financial award is reduced in direct proportion to the injured party’s share of responsibility.
What distinguishes Kentucky from many other states is that there is no threshold that bars recovery. Even a driver found to be 80% responsible for a crash can still recover 20% of their total damages from the other negligent party. States that use a modified comparative fault standard would bar that same driver from recovering anything at all.
How insurance companies use comparative fault
Because any fault percentage assigned to you directly reduces what the insurer must pay, adjusters have a financial incentive to argue that you share as much responsibility as possible. Common tactics include:
- Claiming you were speeding or driving distractedly at the moment of impact
- Arguing you failed to yield or braked without warning
- Using recorded statements out of context to suggest an admission of fault
Knowing these tactics in advance makes it easier to avoid giving adjusters the ammunition they are looking for.
Protecting your right to recovery
Accurately determining fault requires physical evidence, accident reconstruction analysis, traffic camera footage, and objective witness accounts. If you were injured in a vehicle collision, consulting a personal injury attorney in Kentucky can help ensure that insurance companies do not unfairly inflate your share of responsibility or reduce the compensation you need to recover.