What evidence can a defendant use to argue I share blame for my own injuries?

· 3 min read

A defendant trying to pin part of the blame on the injured person can draw on the same kinds of proof used to establish negligence generally, applied in reverse. The goal is to show the plaintiff failed to exercise ordinary care and that the failure helped cause the harm, which under Georgia’s apportionment statute can reduce or even bar the recovery.

Categories of proof defendants rely on

Comparative-fault evidence tends to fall into a few recognizable groups:

  • Physical evidence from the scene, such as photographs, vehicle damage, skid marks, and the resting positions of people or objects.
  • Witness testimony, including bystanders, other drivers, responding officers, and sometimes the plaintiff’s own statements.
  • Documentary and electronic records, like incident reports, surveillance or dashcam video, phone-use records, and event-data-recorder downloads from a vehicle.
  • Expert analysis, for example accident reconstruction or a safety engineer’s view of how the injury occurred.

Each category aims to fill in what the plaintiff was doing in the moments that mattered and whether a reasonably careful person would have acted differently.

How the evidence is tied to fault

Raw evidence is only useful if it connects to a recognized lack of care. A defendant typically argues that the plaintiff did something a prudent person would avoid, such as ignoring a clearly marked hazard, looking away from the road, crossing outside a crosswalk against traffic, or disregarding a known risk. The defense then links that conduct to the injury, contending it was a contributing cause rather than a harmless detail. Under O.C.G.A. § 51-12-33, only conduct that actually helped produce the harm can support a fault percentage.

Georgia’s recent tort-reform changes also made seatbelt evidence admissible on issues including comparative negligence, where it had generally been excluded before, so what counts as usable proof can shift as the law evolves.

What the plaintiff can do with it

The injured person is not a passive target. The plaintiff can challenge the reliability of the defendant’s evidence, offer competing testimony, show the conduct did not actually cause the injury, and argue that even if some carelessness existed, the defendant’s negligence was the larger cause. Because the defense carries the burden on comparative fault, weak or speculative proof may not be enough to move the percentages.

The bottom line

To argue shared blame in Georgia, a defendant assembles scene evidence, witness accounts, records, video, and expert opinion, then ties the plaintiff’s conduct to the cause of the injury. The categories are broad and the admissible set can change with the law, but the defense must still connect that proof to a genuine failure of ordinary care that contributed to the harm.

This article is for general educational and informational purposes only and is not legal advice. It does not create an attorney-client relationship, and Georgia law may change. For advice about a specific situation, consult a licensed Georgia personal injury attorney.

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