Mathias,

  You've completely avoided  my major point.
   I get your point; sometimes responsibility for accidents isn't clear cut - the victim sometimes contributes to the cause of the accident being negligent.
  But that's a minor point.

  My point is the legal system, like almost everything,  is very much rigged against low income folks. And that injustice is getting increasingly worse. In the 60's and 70's, new young lawyers felt a strong responsibility to help low income folks get justice against the rich and powerful. Legal aid expanded in proportion to the new social democratic surge. Since the 80's however, legal aid is shrinking in proportion to the increase in income disparity between rich and the rest. 
  Today the majority cannot afford to hire a lawyer; legal aid supplies one only in criminal cases or threat of eviction.
  The poor are essentially at the mercy of the rich. It's medieval. No lawyer = no justice. No equal justice = no democracy.