Can A Rear-Ended Driver Be At Fault?

Q: Is it impossible for the driver of a vehicle that has been rear-ended to be at fault for a crash?

A: I can think of at least a few hypotheticals wherein the driver of a rear-ended-vehicle would be at fault. For example, an individual whose vehicle was rear-ended yesterday might use that same vehicle to rear-end someone else’s vehicle today.

All joking aside, we’ve had a number of cases in which we have established at least partial liability against the driver of the vehicle rear-ended. In one such case the point of impact to the front vehicle was to its rear-passenger-side and the point of impact to the rear vehicle (our client’s vehicle) was to the front-driver-side. We used this objective evidence to help establish our client’s account of the facts (that the driver of the front vehicle abruptly cut off our client and slammed on his brakes). Had the points of impact been more centralized our client’s allegation of an unavoidable collision would have been less plausible.