Defenses and Affirmative Defenses
Liability Defenses
Modified systems bar recovery where the plaintiff's fault reaches or exceeds a threshold, commonly fifty or fifty-one percent. Below the threshold, damages are reduced proportionally.
The threshold varies between the two common formulations.
Alternative Names:
Modified Comparative Negligence, Threshold Comparative Fault
Why it Matters?
The distinction between the fifty percent and fifty-one percent formulations decides cases at exactly equal fault, since a plaintiff found fifty percent at fault recovers in a fifty-one percent bar state and recovers nothing in a fifty percent bar state. That makes the verdict form and the jury's allocation the entire case in evenly balanced fault scenarios, and pushing the allocation past the threshold is worth substantial trial effort.
Frequently Confused with
Related terms
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between the two formulations?
Why does the threshold matter so much?
