Defenses
If you have been injured as the result of another's negligence, your claim may be barred or reduced by various defenses. Here are some of those defenses:
Statute of Limitations. A statute of limitations may bar your
claim. In Minnesota, the statute of limitations for most negligence claims
is six years. But there are shorter statutes of limitations applicable
to some cases. Other states also have shorter statutes of limitations.
A lawyer should review your claim at the earliest possible time, because
determining the statute of limitations requires careful legal judgment.
- Exclusive Remedy. Sometimes another legal procedure
provides an exclusive remedy and, in effect, trumps the negligence claim.
For example, an employee injured on the job usually must make a claim under
worker's compensation. Sometimes a contract bars recovery and requires
the claimant to proceed under contractual provisions, and in some cases
a contract bars recovery completely. No-fault statutes in many states
prohibit negligence claims in automobile accident cases unless damages
are high, or a threshhold of permanency has been met. If the threshhold
has not been met, then the injured party's exlusive remedy is a claim against
accident insurance.
- Contributory negligence. If the injured party's own
negligence contributes to his injuries, most state laws reduce the recovery
in proportion to that negligence. The exact reduction formula varies from
state to state.
- Assumption of Risk. If a party engages in a risky activity,
the defense may contend that the injured party assumed the risk, in essence
exonerating the defendant's otherwise negligent conduct. A fencer probably
cannot sue his opponent for negligent fencing. A sky-diver probably cannot
sue the parachute manufacturer when the chute fails to open.
- Sovereign Immunity. The defendant is working for the
government, and the alleged negligence falls within the scope of discretionary
immunity. The scope of this sovereign immunity is quite complex; we'll
discuss it elsewhere.
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