{"id":31,"date":"2017-01-17T17:41:59","date_gmt":"2017-01-17T17:41:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnsontabor.com\/articles\/?p=31"},"modified":"2018-08-01T17:42:12","modified_gmt":"2018-08-01T17:42:12","slug":"admitting-liability-in-car-accidents-can-keep-damaging-evidence-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnsontabor.com\/articles\/admitting-liability-in-car-accidents-can-keep-damaging-evidence-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Admitting Liability in Car Accidents Can Keep Damaging Evidence Out"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nebraska Law Doesn’t Allow for Punitive Damages<\/h3>\n

Although my friend and colleague Danny Leavitt<\/a> has argued otherwise, it is generally accepted that Nebraska law does not allow a plaintiff to recover punitive damages. That is, plaintiffs are not allowed to recover more than their actual damages – something other states, such as California, do allow.<\/p>\n

What this means for car accident victims is that why an at-fault party caused an accident is not relevant. Defendants and their counsel know this and use it to their advantage. If a defendant admits that it was negligent and caused the accident, then facts surrounding why or how the defendant was negligent become irrelevant. As a result, Nebraska judges will generally keep out evidence showing that the at-fault driver was drunk, speeding, texting while driving, or any other reasons that the general public may find interesting.<\/p>\n

This has long been a hot button issue for plaintiff’s attorneys, who rely on being able to tell a story to the jury to win their case. In fact, there have even been attempts to pass bills through the Unicameral that seek to change this rule.<\/p>\n

Proposed Bill Would Allow for Blood Alcohol Evidence in Car Accident Cases<\/h3>\n

The most recent of such bills, LB 84,<\/a> was introduced on January 5, 2017. The bill would amend current Nebraska law and specifically allow for evidence of a driver’s blood alcohol content to be admissible in a civil trial.<\/p>\n

Specifically, the bill would amend Neb. Rev. Stat. 60-602 to read as follows:<\/p>\n

Notwithstanding any admission of liability, fault, negligence, causation, or any element required to prove civil liability, evidence that any person who, while operating or in the actual physical control of a motor vehicle in violation of section 60-6,196 or 60-6,197, causes any damage, death, or injury as a result of such violation shall be admissible for any purpose in any civil action related to such damage, death, or injury.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The public policy behind keeping such evidence out is that, since Nebraska law doesn’t allow for recovery of punitive damages, the reason why<\/strong> someone caused a car accident doesn’t change how much damage was caused. Therefore, it is believed that this evidence would only serve to inflame the jury or cause emotional reactions – reactions which are likely to punish an at-fault driver who was drunk.<\/p>\n

So what do you think? Should evidence showing why a driver was negligent be admissible in a civil trial when the defendant has already admitted liability?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nebraska Law Doesn’t Allow for Punitive Damages Although my friend and colleague Danny Leavitt has argued otherwise, it is generally accepted that Nebraska law does…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[10],"class_list":["post-31","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-car-accidents","tag-legal-perspectives"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnsontabor.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnsontabor.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnsontabor.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnsontabor.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnsontabor.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/johnsontabor.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32,"href":"https:\/\/johnsontabor.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31\/revisions\/32"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnsontabor.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnsontabor.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnsontabor.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}