What does comparative negligence determine?

Comparative negligence is a legal doctrine used to determine the liability of parties involved in an accident or incident. It assesses the degree of fault of each party in relation to the overall situation. The key aspect of comparative negligence is that it quantifies each party's actions or negligence as a percentage. This percentage reflects how much each party contributed to the incident, which can directly affect the amount of damages awarded.

In legal contexts, when a case of comparative negligence is presented, the court evaluates the actions of each party and assigns a proportion of blame. This allows for a more nuanced approach where, rather than an all-or-nothing ruling, both parties can be held accountable according to their specific contributions to the event. For instance, if one party is found to be 70% at fault and the other 30%, their respective claims for damages would be adjusted based on these percentages.

This method contrasts with approaches that assign full liability to one party or do not take into account the relative contributions of each party's negligence, illustrating why the understanding of percentages of negligence is fundamental to the comparative negligence doctrine.