Fault When Two Cars Back Out of Parking Spaces at Once

Attorney Answer

When two drivers back out simultaneously and hit each other, Nevada does not pick a winner — it divides responsibility between you. Expect shared fault, and understand that your share does not merely reduce what you recover, it can eliminate it.

The governing law. NRS 41.141 is Nevada's modified comparative negligence statute. Your own negligence does not bar recovery if it was not greater than the negligence of the parties against whom you seek recovery, and whatever you do recover is reduced in proportion to your share. In plain terms: if you are found 40 percent responsible, you collect 60 percent of your damages. If you are found equally responsible, you collect half. If you are found more responsible than the other driver, you collect nothing — and the same rule works against her if she is the more responsible one.

This is different from a contributory-negligence state, where any fault at all would bar you. Nevada does not do that. But do not make the opposite mistake either: at 51 percent you are out entirely.

Both drivers backing out of spaces owe the same basic obligation to look and to yield to whatever is already in the lane. That is why these cases so often land near an even split. The factual questions that move the needle are which of you entered the travel lane first, how far each car had traveled when the impact occurred, and where on each vehicle the damage is — a strike on your rear quarter panel tells a different story than a strike squarely on your bumper.

Your video is the case. You said you have footage. That is more evidence than most parking-lot claims ever produce, and it is the only thing in this dispute that does not depend on memory.

What you can do

1. Preserve the video immediately. Save a copy off your phone — to a computer, a cloud drive, and an external drive. Do not edit, trim, or crop the original file. 2. If the file is too large to send, upload it to a free cloud storage service and share a link instead of attaching it. Do not delete the original to save space. 3. Photograph the damage on both vehicles and the layout of the three parking spaces, including any markings, arrows, or lane width. 4. Write out your account now: which of you began moving first, how far you had backed, and whether the other car was visible before you started. 5. Report the collision to your own insurer and tell them you have video. An adjuster who can watch the footage will assign fault far faster than one relying on two conflicting statements. 6. Do not accept a proposed fault split from the other driver's insurer before someone has actually reviewed your video. 7. If there were injuries, however minor, see a doctor and document them — the deadline for an injury claim is shorter than the one for vehicle damage.

⏱ Time limits apply. Nevada sets different deadlines depending on whether you are claiming for injuries to your person or only for damage to your vehicle, and the injury deadline is the shorter one. Which applies to you, and when it started, depends on your specific facts. Do not let an insurance fault dispute run for months on the assumption that time is not moving.