Maybe you were speeding a little bit when you got hit by another driver. Maybe you were a little tipsy when you slipped on someone’s uneven sidewalk. How does the law treat victims in this situation, where you get seriously injured, but you might have contributed a bit to your own accident?
Nevada law still allows victims to get compensation as long as they have a lower percentage of fault than the defendants. This “modified comparative negligence” rule has some specifics in Nevada law about how it works, what the jury does, what the jury can know, and how damages are ultimately divided. However, you need to actually meet the elements of negligence for your share of fault to be used against you.
For a free case review, call the Las Vegas, NV personal injury lawyers at Mitchell Rogers Injury Law today at (702) 702-2622.
Comparative Fault Laws in Nevada
States typically use one of three laws when it comes to analyzing the victim’s share of the blame in their own accident:
- Contributory negligence rules block the victim from recovering if they have any share of the fault.
- “Pure” comparative fault/negligence rules reduce the victim’s damages by their percentage of fault but never cut off the defendant’s liability for their share of fault.
- “Modified” comparative fault/negligence rules reduce the victim’s damages by their percentage of fault, but they cut off damages if the victim’s fault is over a certain threshold.
In Nevada, we use that last rule: modified comparative negligence. This means you can still get damages when you are partially at fault, as long as your percentage of fault isn’t over the limit.
What’s the Limit of the Victim’s Fault for Comparative Negligence?
Most states use one of two bars: 50% or 51%.
- A “50% bar” means that you cannot get damages if you are 50/50 at fault with the defendant (or defendants, if multiple defendants share fault). Your share of the blame has to be lower than the defendant’s.
- A “51% bar” means 50% is the maximum, and if you are more than 50% at fault (i.e., if you are 51% at fault, because we usually don’t use decimals), then you are blocked from recovery.
Nevada uses a “51% bar” under NRS 41.141(1). This rule states that a victim can recover damages in an injury case as long as their fault is not more than the other parties’ combined fault. This means 50/50 fault is the maximum.
What Qualifies as Partial Liability in an Accident Case?
For what you did to qualify as “partial fault” or “partial liability,” it has to meet all of the elements of negligence. “Negligence” is usually what you are suing for in an accident case, by accusing the defendant of four things:
- Owing you a legal duty
- Breaching that duty
- Causing your accident through that breach
- Causing you injuries and other damages.
If the defendant’s actions meet all of these, then they are at fault. For example, if they violated the speed limit and that caused them to crash into you, their breach of the speed limit caused your injuries. As another example, if there was a spill in a store that the staff did not clean up, they violated the duty to keep their premises safe for customers, resulting in your slip and fall.
On the other side of the issue, if you also breached a legal duty, and it helped cause your injuries, then you are responsible, too.
If what you did did not actually cause the accident, then the court cannot hold you partially liable at all. This is important if the defendant had the last clear chance to avoid the accident but didn’t, or if what they did was so overwhelmingly dangerous that your slight mistake didn’t actually contribute to the accident.
Assigning Partial Fault to Each Party
When courts or insurance companies assess partial fault, they assign a percentage of the blame to each party who satisfies the elements of negligence. This essentially weighs what each person did and considers how much they contributed to the accident.
This is always a fact-based judgment call, which is why it is up to the jury.
If our Winchester, NV personal injury lawyers take your case to court, we will argue all of the relevant factors that might come into play and try to get the jury to decide that what you did was not a major factor, potentially reducing your percentage of fault.
Examples
Imagine this example: if you were driving in a 45mph zone at 55 mph, but the other driver is going 80 and driving under the influence, the court might say you were only 5%-10% at fault. They would recognize that it is mostly the drunk speeder’s fault, but they might not let you “get away with” your speed, either, especially if your injuries were worse because of the increased speed.
How Courts Use Partial Liability
As mentioned, it is up to the jury to decide your percentage of fault. NRS 41.141(2) lays out the process for applying partial fault:
- First, the judge instructs the jury that the plaintiff loses the case if their fault is over 50%.
- Then the jury determines the total damages for the case.
- Then they assign a percentage of fault to each party.
The judge then orders damages paid according to those percentages of the total and drops out the defendant’s share of the damages. For example, if the case is worth $100,000, then…
- A defendant who is 50% at fault pays $50,000.
- A defendant who is 40% at fault pays $40,000.
- A victim who is 10% at fault doesn’t get the remaining $10,000.
If you are suing multiple parties and one of them settles with you before judgment is entered at trial, the judge doesn’t tell the jury about how much they paid before the jury decides how much the total case is worth. The judge simply excludes the settlement amount from the total damages and lets the jury assign fault percentages as among the remaining parties.
Call Our Personal Injury Attorneys in Nevada Today
For help with your case, call Mitchell Rogers Injury Law for a free case review with our Boulder City, NV personal injury lawyers at (702) 702-2622.