What if I am partially at fault for my personal injury case?
Stephen D. Phillips: Illinois uses comparative fault. The jury looks at 100% of the fault, assigns each party a percentage, and deducts the injured person’s percentage from the recovery.
Attorney Stephen D. Phillips · Car Accidents · 46-second answer
Transcript
Automatically transcribed from the video’s audio and lightly edited.
Illinois has what’s called comparative fault, and what happens is the jury looks at 100% of the fault and says, okay, person A is 50% at fault, person B is 25% at fault, and the plaintiff or the injured person may be 25% at fault. The total of everybody’s fault is 100%. So the jury assesses how much fault the injured person may have contributed to their own injury and makes a deduction for that percentage of fault.
Note: Under 735 ILCS 5/2-1116, an injured person is barred only if more than 50% at fault. At exactly 50% the claim survives, with the award reduced by the person’s share of fault.
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