You may have heard the song, “Parking Lot Party”?

Well getting in a car accident in a parking lot is no party.

It is one of the most common locations for a car accident and one of the most difficult to obtain a recovery from. The insurance companies have all but thrown their hands up in the air and generally make the dertmination that both parties are equally at fault unless you can convince your insurance comapny otherwise.

If you are in an accident in a parking lot and the other driver is clearly at fault, there are a couple of things you can do to protect yourself. First, call the Police and have them come and write a report. That saves aggravation when a party changes their story a couple of weeks down the road. That happens all the time. Second, document everything. You have your cell phone. Heck, one of you was probably on yours when the accident happened. Take pictures of the area showing the cars and where the damage occurred. It will help later on when you are trying to remember the details. Third, call your insurance comapny immediately and report what happened and be very clear with them that the other driver was at fault and why. They will obtain a police report and make their decision.

If they do determine that both parties were equally at fault for the accident, they will tell you that they are determining that it’s 50/50 liability. That means that if you were injured, you would only receive the value of 50% of your case. In legal terms, it’s called contributory negligence when the value of your case is decreased by the amount that your own negligence contributed to the incident.