Comparative Negligence. Percentage of Fault and Injury Compensation

Guide to Personal Injury

Negligence serves as the primary basis for determining liability in personal injury law. In certain instances, determining who is liable may appear to be a black or white issue. Often times, multiple parties may be at fault in the accident. In these cases, applying the law of contributory or comparative negligence come into play.

Comparative negligence statutes will determine who will receive compensation for their losses and how much they are eligible to receive. If the victim was partly to blame for causing the accident, they may still be able to recover damages. However, their financial recovery may be greatly reduced or possibly prohibited, depending upon how the plaintiff’s actions caused or contributed to the accident.

Percentage of Fault and Compensation for Damages

Comparative negligence is applied to a situation where each party involved is responsible for some degree of negligence. For example, a driver is traveling down the road 10 miles an hour over the speed limit. A pedestrian is crosses the street, but does not use the designated crosswalk. The vehicle strikes the pedestrian injuring them. A jury may determine that both parties are equally at fault. Because the driver was going over the speed limit, this may have contributed to his inability to stop in time. The pedestrian may also be at fault because he chose to cross the road illegally. The damages awarded to the victim total $100,000, but they will only receive half of that because they were 50% responsible. In some states, a party whose negligence was 50% or more is not allowed to recover damages.

Contributory Negligence laws are much more strict in determining liability allowing for damages. Under this rule of law, if a party suffers injury due to his or her own partial negligence, they are precluded from recovering any damages. A number of states have deemed this law unjust and currently only five states follow the pure contributory negligence rule. They include Alabama, the District of Columbia, Maryland, North Carolina and Virginia.

States and Restrictions

Every state has different comparative negligence laws, which determine how all parties involved in the accident will share the burden.

Throughout the United States, there are currently four systems used when establishing damage awards. They are:

Pure Comparative Negligence
Pure Contributory Negligence
Modified Comparative Negligence—50% Bar Rule
Modified Comparative Negligence—51% Bar Rule

There are eleven states that use the modified comparative negligence law—50% bar rule. This means that if the damaged party is less than 50% responsible, they can collect damages. Twenty-one states recognize the 51% bar rule meaning that the party deemed less than 51% liable can seek reparations. The remaining thirteen states have pure comparative negligence laws determining eligibility for compensation. In these states, a judge or jury determines the proportion of fault to be assigned to each party responsible.