How Comparative Fault Works in Tennessee Personal Injury Cases
If you’ve been hurt in an accident in Tennessee, one of the first questions you might face is: what happens if I was partially at fault? It’s more common than you might think. Maybe you were in a car accident but had been going slightly over the speed limit. Maybe you slipped and fell on someone’s property but weren’t watching where you were stepping. Does sharing some blame mean you lose your right to compensation? In Tennessee, the answer isn’t always a simple yes or no. Understanding how comparative fault works can make a real difference in what you’re able to recover.
The Basic Framework: How Tennessee Assigns Fault
Tennessee follows what’s known as modified comparative fault, which is codified in Tennessee Code Annotated § 29-11-103. Under this rule, fault for an accident can be split between multiple parties, including the injured person. Each party’s share of the blame is expressed as a percentage, and those percentages must add up to 100%.
What makes Tennessee’s approach significant is the 50% threshold. If a judge or jury determines that an injured person was 50% or more at fault for the accident, that person recovers nothing. However, if your share of the fault falls below that threshold, you can still recover compensation. The catch is that your recovery gets reduced by the percentage of fault assigned to you. For example, if you suffered $100,000 in damages but were found to be 30% at fault, you could recover $70,000.
How Fault Gets Determined
So who decides how fault is divided? In a personal injury case that goes to trial, it’s typically the jury. In cases that settle before trial, the insurance companies and attorneys negotiate based on the evidence and what a jury might reasonably decide. Several factors come into play when assigning percentages of fault, including:
- The specific actions each party took or failed to take
- Whether either party violated any traffic laws, safety codes, or regulations
- Witness statements and physical evidence from the scene
- Any applicable industry standards or safety practices
- Expert testimony about what a reasonable person would have done
Insurance companies are well aware of comparative fault rules, and they often use them as a tool to argue that an injured person’s own actions contributed to what happened. Even a small increase in the assigned percentage of fault can significantly reduce a settlement.
What Happens When Multiple Parties Are at Fault
Some accidents involve more than two parties. Tennessee law allows fault to be distributed among all parties who contributed to the accident, including people or companies who aren’t directly named in the lawsuit. This means that in a multi-vehicle crash or a premises liability case involving a property owner, a contractor, and a manufacturer, for instance, the percentages can get complicated quickly.
The way fault is allocated across multiple defendants matters because, under Tennessee Code Annotated § 29-11-107, each defendant is generally responsible only for their own proportionate share of the fault. This is different from how some other states handle things, where one defendant might be required to pay for damages caused by another. In Tennessee, if one defendant can’t pay their share, you may not automatically be able to collect that portion from someone else.
Don’t Wait to Protect Your Rights
One important consideration in any Tennessee personal injury case is timing. The state’s statute of limitations for personal injury claims is generally one year from the date of the injury, under Tennessee Code Annotated § 28-3-104. That’s a shorter window than many other states, and failing to file within that period typically means losing the right to recover anything at all.
If you’ve been injured in an accident and have questions about how fault might be assigned in your case, we encourage you to reach out to the Knoxville personal injury attorneys at Reynolds, Atkins, Brezina & Stewart, PLLC. We are here to help you understand your options and work toward the outcome you deserve. Contact us today to schedule a free consultation.
Source:
law.justia.com/codes/tennessee/title-29/chapter-11/section-29-11-103/
