Question

suppose that in a negligence case, the jury determines that the defendant was 99 percent responsible for the plaintiff's injuries due to his negligence, and that the plaintiff was 1 percent responsible for her own injuries due to her personal negligence. the jury further determines that the plaintiff's damages amount to $100,000. in a contributory negligence jurisdiction, how much would the plaintiff recover from the defendant?

Answer 1

In a contributory negligence jurisdiction, the plaintiff would not be able to recover any damages from the defendant if they were found to have contributed to their own injuries, regardless of the percentage of fault. However, based on the given scenario, if the jurisdiction follows a comparative negligence approach, the plaintiff would be entitled to recover damages from the defendant, but the amount would be reduced by the percentage of their own fault.

In this case, the plaintiff's own negligence was found to be 1 percent, which means the defendant is 99 percent responsible for the injuries. If the damages were $100,000, the plaintiff would be entitled to recover 99 percent of the damages from the defendant, which is $99,000. However, the plaintiff's own negligence would reduce this amount by 1 percent, resulting in a final award of $98,010 ($99,000 - $990).