One of the most common questions I get as a Seattle car accident lawyer in a Bellevue injury law firm is whether or not a rear-end accident is automatically the fault of the "rear driver". The reason this question is asked so often is because the insurance companies representing the rear driver will oftentimes try to argue that the accident was the fault of the front driver. This article will explain why the insurance companies make this argument, and what you can do if they use it against you.

In the state of Washington, there is no such thing as an automatic determination of fault. Many people believe that the rear car in a rear-end accident is always at fault, but the law states that this cannot automatically be the legal assumption. The fault in an accident must be determined on a case by case basis, so there can never be any sweeping generalizations about who causes certain types of accidents. The insurance companies know this and will dispute fault in certain rear-end cases – including ones that are obviously the fault of the rear driver. They do this for a variety of reasons. For one, they hope that the accident victim will be overwhelmed with their challenge of the fault, and will take a low settlement offer as a result.

Secondly, the insurance company may try this as a delaying tactic. If they can delay the victim from actually filing a claim against them until the statute of limitations passes, then there will be nothing that the injured victim can do. Lastly, if you hire an attorney who is afraid of taking cases to court, the insurance company may do this to negotiate your settlement to a very low number. They know that a lawyer like that will not want to risk challenging their argument of fault, so they can use this to settle at a figure that is much too low for your case.

The best way to defend yourself against these tactics is to speak with an experienced Seattle personal injury attorney. There is no way to determine exactly what you should do without knowing the full details of the accident and resulting injuries. Be wary of lawyers who guarantee they can settle your case in a short period of time, because these are the types of attorneys that the insurance companies can easily take advantage of. If you would like further help and advice, please call the experienced Washington injury attorneys of Premier Law Group.

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