Winning compensation for a personal injury requires proving that the responsible party was negligent. Who can be declared negligent if a pothole had damaged your vehicle?
Factors that would influence a decision, regarding who should be named negligent:
• The location of the pothole: In what state were you located when your car landed in that rut?
• What governmental body had influence over that damaged section of roadway?
• What type of car insurance did you have?
To what degree does a governmental body control a section of road?
In order to prove a governmental body liable for any pothole-caused damage, you would need to show that the same body had previously learned about how the road had been damaged.
In other words, if a section of the government has remained unaware of a damage, in a certain section of roadway, then that same body could not be held responsible for harm done to those that chose to travel the same road. Still, the same body’s accountability would become apparent as soon as someone else got hurt, while driving over that particular stretch of road.
Which of the various governmental bodies might control a section of roadway?
• Institutions in state government
• Institutions in county government
• An agency in the city government
• A department in a local township
• A department in a village government
• A special office within a government that deals with matters of a crossroads
How might a policyholder’s insurance policy influence the method for dealing with pothole-caused damage?
The Personal Injury Lawyer in Mississauga knows that the size of the deductible would determine how much money the vehicle’s owner would need to pay for the necessary repairs. Every insurance policy states the amount of money that should be subtracted from the cost of the repairs. That amount of money equals the amount that must be paid by the policyholder, before the insurance company will cover the cost of the remaining damages.
It is possible that the owner of the damaged tire had purchased a special type of insurance.
Some tire stores provide their customers with the opportunity to purchase such an insurance policy. It covers the cost of any future repairs to the tires or wheels on the insurance-buyer’s vehicle. The policies offered by tire stores cover any damage that might be caused by a road hazard.
Stores offer such special policies, in order to remove any hesitation by a customer, regarding the purchase of a new tire. Stores that sell tires remain all-too aware of the conditions on some of the paved roads.
Some customers hesitate to spend money on an item that might hit a rut in the road. For that reason, the stores’ insurance policies always come with either no, or a very low deductible.
