One of the most common questions I get as a Seattle car accident lawyer in a Bellevue injury law firm is whether or not a rear-end accident is automatically the fault of the "rear driver". The reason this question is asked so often is because the insurance companies representing the rear driver will oftentimes try to argue that the accident was the fault of the front driver. This article will explain why the insurance companies make this argument, and what you can do if they use it against you.
In the state of Washington, there is no such thing as an automatic determination of fault. Many people believe that the rear car in a rear-end accident is always at fault, but the law states that this cannot automatically be the legal assumption. The fault in an accident must be determined on a case by case basis, so there can never be any sweeping generalizations about who causes certain types of accidents. The insurance companies know this and will dispute fault in certain rear-end cases