Contributory Negligence
Categories: Regulations, Ethics/Morals
An accident happens. You're hurt. You tried to sneak backstage at Disney World and you were run over by Tinker Bell's Festival of Lights parade float. You plan to sue. Disney has deep pockets, so...you're thinking big bucks. Like...Monstro bucks.
But then your lawyer starts talking about contributory negligence, and suddenly the amount she wants to settle for...gets lower and lower. Turns out that, because you snuck backstage when you weren't supposed to, Disney's liability is lessened. You shared some of the fault. You contributed some of the total negligence that led to the accident.
That's contributory negligence. It's when a party injured in an accident could have done something to prevent the accident (or at least mitigate the damage) but didn't do it. They share some of the fault.
If you had just stayed where you were supposed to at Disney, you wouldn't have gotten hurt.
Eh, maybe you can still get some Marvel movie passes out of it.