<h1>Which Part of Your Body Was Injured?</h1>
<p>At trial for a car accident case, a jury will usually be asked to determine damages. Sometimes however, the Defendant will admit to owing some of the damages but not others. For example, a Defendant may admit fault for a neck injury but ask a jury to assign fault to a second injury. Regularly this occurs when there is a superseding or subsequent accident or injury. For example, if the Plaintiff is in a second car accident and complains at the scene of lower back pain, it would be common for a Defendant to challenge the damages for the instant case. </p>
<h2>Jury’s Role</h2>
<p>It’s the jury’s role to determine whether a Plaintiff’s injuries can be apportioned between a first and second accident. Of course the facts of every situation will help a jury decide on causation and damages. In addition, there are jury instructions that are available when the proximity of time makes it difficult to distinguish between the two. </p>
<p>There are, however, instances when a jury will not be presented with facts of both accidents. Most notably this occurs when the accidents involve injuries to various parts of the Plaintiff’s body. Thus, simply because one is in second accident does not automatically make it relevant for a jury. Without connecting the injuries to the same parts of the body, a second subsequent accident would simply be more confusing to a jury than it would be probative. </p>
<h3>Reversible Error</h3>
<p>In cases where the trial court granted a request by a Plaintiff's <a href="https://www.tuckerup.com/florida-personal-injury-attorney/accident-attorney/">car accident attorney</a> that all the injuries are attributable to the first accident when the second accident involves the same injured body parts, the trial courts have on occasion committed reversible error taking the issue away from the jury. This is because it is reversible error to grant a motion for directed verdict when evidence conflicts with relation to the causation of injuries and whether the attribution of expenses between the first and second accident. </p>
<p>When going to trial, it is important to consider other injuries that are not related to the injury at issue before the jury in order to limit exposure to other accidents that may go either way before a jury of your peers. This is particualrly true if there is evidence taht could help a jury segretate bills betwen the two accidents. </p>