Westchester Car Accident Lawyers Prove Defendant is at Fault
In a recent case in Westchester Supreme Court our White Plains Car accident lawyers won another case for our injured client by making an early summary judgment motion. Rather than wait for a trial which can take years, summary judgement is a procedural tool that allows the lawyers to ask the Court to find for the Plaintiff based on an affidavit describing how the accident occurred. Making a motion for summary judgment is an effective means of streamlining cases and moving them faster. Summary judgement is Patti effective where there is clear proof that the accident was caused by a defendant violating a Vehicle and Traffic law,
Our Westchester car crash lawyers proved that our client was a passenger in a car that was proceeding through an intersection in Greenburgh, New York, with the green light in his favor when a vehicle operated by defendant made a sudden left turn in front of our client’s vehicle, causing the driver of plaintiff’s vehicle to severe left to avoid a collision, upon which it struck a street sign and a large steel guard pole.
Based upon those proofs our White Plains personal injury lawyers won an order granting Plaintiff summary judgement on the issue of liability against defendant.
In order to grant summary judgement, the movant must take a prima facie showing of entitlement to judgement as a matter of law, with evidentiary proof in admissible form. The evidence must be viewed in the light most favorable to the opponents of the motion, and every favorable inference must be afforded to the non-movants. The Westchester Supreme Court found that our clients affidavit was sufficient to establish a prima facie showing of entitlement to judgement as a matter of law on the issue of defendant’s liability, “by establishing that the sole proximate cause of the subject accident was the defendant’s violation of Vehicle and Traffic Law 1141 in making a left turn when its was not reasonably safe to do so, directly into the path of our client's oncoming [vehicle] which was lawfully present in the intersection.
New York’s vehicle and traffic law requires that vehicles intending to turn left across an intersection, yield the right of way to other vehicles who are already in the intersection. While it is common for drivers involved in an accident to blame each other, the answer to the question, “who is at fault for a car accident” depends on who violated the rules of the road as laid out in New York’s Vehicle and Traffic law. Often defendants just claim it was the Plaintiffs fault because they didn't yield, but the reality is when the defendant does not know the law, they fail to realize that they have the duty to yield. When the defendant claims that the other side failed to yield, that establishes that they failed to yield the right of way. When the defendant, who under the vehicle and tragic law is obligated to yield the right of way, fails to yield the right of way they have established their own liability.
Since the decision, the case has since settled and our Westchester car accident attorney secured an excellent result in obtaining compensation for our client's personal injuries.
Our Westchester car and truck accident lawyers have extensive experience in interpreting New York’s Vehicle and Traffic law and have even won in New York’s Appellate Courts.
