0 a judgment in court that a person who has been hurt in an accident was partly responsible for their own injuries because they failed to act in a way that could have prevented the accident or the injuries --
1 a situation in which someone has part of the responsibility for their own injuries or loss because they were careless and did not prevent an accident or problem from happening: --
His damages were reduced for contributory negligence in failing to wear a seat belt.
The problem is that the degree of contributory negligence will vary from case to case.
For example, that discretion would be exercised where the behaviour of the successful party had been unreasonable or there had been contributory negligence.
In other words, it can be a defence to say that there was contributory negligence of some kind.
They swept away the doctrine of common employment, and they swept away that curious law of contributory negligence, as it then was.
The whole law of contributory negligence was unfair.
We are making operators absolutely liable, regardless of negligence, contributory negligence or anything else, and the issue here is the extent of that liability.
However, that is not necessary for a finding of contributory negligence.
Building failure claims reveal a substantial contributory negligence aspect for the client where they have stopped and changed programmes, cut budgets, insisted on certain materials, certain contractors and particular procedures.
