A0562
Title: Explaining court judgments on plaintiff's comparative negligence in vehicle related personal injury cases
Authors: Han-Wei Ho - Academia Sinica (Taiwan) [presenting]
Abstract: In Taiwan, accident victims can recover compensation for their injuries even if they are 99\% responsible for the accident. It remains a mystery, however, that how the court determines the degrees of negligence on a percentage basis to both parties claimed to be at fault. Based on district court decisions 2000-2016 for personal injuries sustained from motor vehicle collision and pedestrian-car accident claims in which the blame is shared, the effects of traffic violations on the assignment of fault are analyzed. Breaches of duties considered include driving under the influence, skipping a red light, failing to yield the right-of-way, breaking the speed limit, using a cell phone while driving, unaware of traffic in front, not wearing a helmet, jaywalking, crossing against the traffic signal and so on. Some adages like ``The pedestrian has the right of way,'' ``Bigger vehicles are always blamed in an accident, even if it was the smaller vehicles fault,'' are empirically tested as well.
