We often think of injury cases in terms of “the victim” – an innocent person – and “the defendant” – the bad guy who caused the accident. However, most accidents have much blurrier lines, with “the victim” sometimes being partially responsible. Comparative negligence laws account for this.
You do not have to be wholly innocent to sue for injuries under Texas’ comparative negligence laws. Instead, the law typically assigns a percentage of fault to everyone involved, which can range from 0% to 100%. Then, each person pays that share of the damages. If the victim has a percentage of fault, they lose out on that share of damages, but they can still sue as long as they are a maximum of 50% at fault.
For help with your injury case, call Cap City Injury Attorneys’ Austin personal injury lawyers at (512) 612-3110.
What is Comparative Negligence?
Traditionally, the law used to be that if you contributed in any way to your own accident, then you could not sue. This “contributory negligence” rule was quite harsh, so many courts and lawmakers adopted a different system: comparative negligence.
Under a comparative negligence system, courts determine who contributed to causing an accident, then assign each party a percentage of the blame.
Some states use different cutoff points, where a victim’s fault can stop them from recovering.
- Pure comparative negligence states have no cutoff; a victim who is 99% at fault can still sue for 1% of their damages.
- States with a modified comparative negligence system with a “51% bar” cut off compensation if the victim is more than 50% liable (i.e., 51% liable).
- States with a modified comparative negligence system with a “50% bar” cut off compensation if the victim is 50% at fault or higher.
Comparative negligence also goes by the names “comparative fault,” “proportionate responsibility,” and other similar titles.
What Laws Does Texas Use for Partially At-Fault Plaintiffs?
Texas’ “proportionate responsibility” law is found at Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 33.001. Under this law, victims cannot recover if their share of fault “is greater than 50 percent.”
We usually do not use decimals for fault, meaning that 50% fault is okay but 51% fault is barred. That means we have a “modified comparative negligence” law with a “51% bar.”
How the Law is Applied
The law gives the jury the burden of assigning fault to each party, then they decide the total damages. The judge blocks the case if the victim’s share is over 50%. If that is not an issue, then the judge orders each defendant to pay their share of the total damages.
Example
For example, imagine a car accident case where…
- Defendant A was 50% at fault
- Defendant B was 45% at fault
- The victim was 5% at fault.
If the total damages were $100,000, then…
- Defendant A pays the victim $50,000
- Defendant B pays the victim $45,000
- The victim loses out on the remaining $5,000 and recovers $95,000 of the $100,000 total value.
Can You Still Sue if You Were at Fault?
Under the rule in Texas, our San Marcos, TX personal injury lawyers can still bring your case as long as your share of the blame is 50% max. In a case with two parties, if your share of the blame is even 1% higher than the defendant’s, then you would be ineligible for damages.
What this typically means is that defendants can recover, even if they were not totally innocent. Drivers often sue for crashes where they were speeding a bit or looked down at the radio for a moment, and they can still recover damages in many of these cases. The same is true for slip and fall cases where the victim might have been drunk or not paying full attention.
Just because you also did something a bit wrong or made a minor mistake does not make the defendant’s dangerous actions okay.
How Are Damages Reduced for Partial Fault?
Courts assign a percentage of fault to each person involved in the case, including the victim. However, the victim has to actually have done something to contribute to the accident or the injuries to give them a percentage of the fault. If their mistake was actually not part of the cause, or if the defendant was the one who made the final mistake to cause the crash (regardless of what the victim did before that), then the victim would not share any blame.
Once the court assigns a percentage of the blame, each defendant pays that share of the damages. The victim loses out on anything left over.
This means that if you are 5% at fault, you receive only 95% of the case’s payout; if you were 10% at fault, you receive only 90%. You can potentially still win a 50/50 case, but the defendant would only pay half the total value.
Who Decides Partial Fault?
In a court case, decisions are made by two people/bodies:
- The judge decides the law that applies, such as evidentiary rules, objections, and jury instructions.
- The jury decides the facts based on the evidence they hear.
This means that any factual decisions – what happened? who was at fault? – are all left to the jury. This, of course, only happens if the case gets to trial and you use a jury trial. Trials can also be held as “bench trials,” where there is no jury, and the judge decides the facts and the law.
In a jury trial, the jury decides how much the case is worth and who shares what percentage of the blame, then the judge carries out their decision by doing the math, blocking the victim’s recovery if their share is over 50%, and assigning how much each defendant pays.
Is Fault Decided in a Settlement?
If you settle your case or accept an insurance payout, the case never gets to this stage, and decisions about fault are never really put on the record. There may not be an admission about percentages of fault on either side. Instead, the case is simply dropped for the agreed-upon settlement price.
Call Our Personal Injury Attorneys in Texas Today
Call (512) 612-3110 for a free case review with the Buda, TX personal injury lawyers at Cap City Injury Attorneys today.