- last clear chance
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last clear chance n: a doctrine in the law of negligence: the contributory negligence of a plaintiff in putting himself or herself in peril will not bar recovery from a defendant who could have avoided injuring or killing the plaintiff by the use of ordinary care – called also discovered peril;
Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of Law. Merriam-Webster. 1996.
- last clear chance
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n.A doctrine that allows a plaintiff to recover from a defendant if the defendant had the last clear chance or opportunity to avoid the accident, regardless of the plaintiff’s own negligence.
The Essential Law Dictionary. — Sphinx Publishing, An imprint of Sourcebooks, Inc. Amy Hackney Blackwell. 2008.
- last clear chance
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A rule, most commonly applied to auto accidents, providing that the negligence of a party suing for damages for an accident is irrelevant if the party being sued could have avoided the accident by reasonable care in the final moments before the accident. Example: a driver drifts over the center line, and an oncoming driver notes the drifting but proceeds without taking simple evasive action and crashes into the first driver. The oncoming driver may be liable for the injuries to the first driver who was over the line.Category: Accidents & InjuriesCategory: Small Claims Court & Lawsuits
Nolo’s Plain-English Law Dictionary. Gerald N. Hill, Kathleen Thompson Hill. 2009.
- last clear chance
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In the law of torts (See tort law), the doctrine that excuses or negates the effect of the plaintiff's contributory negligence and permits him or her to recover, in particular instances, damages regardless of his or her own lack of ordinary care.
Dictionary from West's Encyclopedia of American Law. 2005.
- last clear chance
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In the law of torts, the doctrine that excuses or negates the effect of the plaintiff's contributory negligence and permits him or her to recover, in particular instances, damages regardless of his or her own lack of ordinary care.
Short Dictionary of (mostly American) Legal Terms and Abbreviations.
- last clear chance
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n.a rule of law in determining responsibility for damages caused by negligence, which provides that if the plaintiff (the party suing for damages) is negligent, that will not matter if the defendant (the party being sued for damages caused by his/her negligence) could have still avoided the accident by reasonable care in the final moments (no matter how slight) before the accident. The theory is that although the plaintiff may have been negligent, his/her negligence no longer was the cause of the accident because the defendant could have prevented the accident. Most commonly applied to auto accidents, a typical case of last clear chance would be when one driver drifts over the center line, and this action was noted by an oncoming driver who proceeds without taking simple evasive action, crashes into the first driver and is thus liable for the injuries to the first driver who was over the line. In the few states which apply the strict "contributory negligence" rule which keeps a negligent plaintiff from recovering damages from a negligent defendant, "last clear chance" can save the careless plaintiff's lawsuit.
Law dictionary. EdwART. 2013.
