You’re cruising down the road, eager to get home from work. As you approach a red light, you suddenly find that your brakes aren’t working the way they’re supposed to. Seconds later, you’ve rear-ended the car in front of you. You followed every traffic law and took your car in for regular maintenance, to boot. Could this be the mechanic’s fault?
Who’s responsible for mechanical failure?
When you entrust your car to a mechanic or repair shop, you expect that they’ll treat your car appropriately and do what they say they’re going to do. The problem is, unless you’re a mechanic yourself, there’s no way to know whether they performed all the repairs adequately. When a repair shop fails in their duty of care, it can put you at risk of serious accident.
If you’ve been in an accident as a result of mechanical failure, you may be able to sue the repair shop for negligence. In negligence cases, you must prove that the defendant had a duty of care toward you—in this case, repairing your car to meet safety and operational standards—and they failed in that duty, which directly caused your accident. If you can prove that their failure to perform was the cause of your accident, you may be able to recover damages.
A mechanic’s duty of care
As a layperson, you rely on your mechanic’s specialized knowledge to keep your car operating safely. You assume that they have the skills, license and insurance to make the repairs—or that they’ll tell you when there’s no way to fix your car so it’s safe enough to drive.
Mechanics might cut corners in a number of ways, which breaches their duty of care. For example, they may replace car parts with worn, broken or incompatible parts. They may accidentally damage other parts of the car, and fail to fix them. Or they simply may perform substandard repairs and maintenance, failing to notice that there’s a serious problem with the vehicle.
When suing a mechanic for negligence, your case will hinge on whether a similarly skilled and trained mechanic would have or should have known that the repairs were inadequate. You may prove this through repair work documentation (always save your receipts, and get their findings in writing), a second opinion from another mechanic or other evidence. Your personal injury attorney will help you gather the information to support your claim.
Get help from an Ohio personal injury lawyer today
Have you been hurt thanks to shoddy repair work? I’ll Make Them Pay!® We’ll work together to hold the mechanic or repair shop responsible for your injuries, so you don’t have to bear those costs alone. Call me today at 877.483.2298 for a consultation.
