Determining Liability in Hawaiʻi Car Accident

Honolulu Injury Lawyer Wayne Parsons

Video Transcript:

Rob Rosenthal: 

How is fault determined in Hawaiʻi after a car accident? That's what we ask Hawaii lawyer Wayne Parsons for this Ask the Lawyers Quick Question.

Wayne Parsons: 

In Hawaiʻi, everybody's fault is evaluated before a final decision is made. The final arbiter is the decisioning court. Most cases don't go to court, so they settle out of court, they settle before trial. Over 95% of the cases that are filed settle before a trial, so no determination of fault is ever made. The parties agree to a settlement, and in the settlement, the defendant pays the plaintiff money, and then has the plaintiff sign something and what the plaintiff signs, the defendant says, "We're not admitting that we did anything wrong." So the only way to really determine fault, the legal fault is determined in a trial where a jury of regular people make a decision and say, "The defendant was at fault." And by the way, in that trial, they can also make a finding that the plaintiff was at fault.

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