Columbus. Ohio. You've tried your best to recover from being involved in a car wreck when, WHAMMO, you get hit by another car! Now you've reinjured yourself plus there are new injuries. Who can sort out this mess? Are both cases over? Under Ohio law, you are not helpless, you can still successfully be compensated for injuries in BOTH accidents. If you can separate your injuries between car wrecks, then each must pay for its own injuries. If you cannot separate them, then the burden of doing so shifts to the other parties.

Here is what a Judge might tell a jury:

Where an injured party suffers a single injury as a result of the negligent acts of multiple at-fault parties, the burden of proof is upon the injured party to demonstrate that the conduct of each defendant was a substantial factor in producing the harm.

On the other hand, where the negligent conduct of two persons has combined to bring about harm to the injured party, and one of the at-fault parties seeks to limit his/her liability on the ground that the harm is capable of apportionment among the at-fault parties, the burden of proof as to the apportionment is upon the defendant to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that apportionment of damages.

Concurrent negligence consists of the negligence of two or more persons concurring, not necessarily in the same point of time, but in point of consequence, in producing a single indivisible injury. Where the negligence of two or more persons concurs to produce a single indivisible injury, then both persons are jointly and severally liable to the injured party. Therefore, if you find that the negligent acts of at-fault party “A” and the negligent acts of at-fault party “B” combined together to produce a single indivisible injury to the injured party, then you will need only to determine the amount of damages sustained by the injured party. If on the other hand you find that the negligent acts of either at-fault party “A” or at-fault party “B” produced separate and divisible injuries to the injured party, then you must determine what damages, if any, were the direct and proximate result of each at-fault parties’ acts.