Mississippi’s Comparative Negligence Rule

Mississippi’s Comparative Negligence Rule

The Mississippi negligence law adheres to a rule of shared responsibility for damages resulting from injuries or damages to property. Mississippi is one of many jurisdictions with a comparative negligence rule, which assigns a percentage of fault to each party involved. The Mississippi Supreme Court introduced the concept of comparative negligence in the 1970s in order to ensure that injured parties who were primarily at fault were not able to recover damages. Mississippi’s comparative negligence law sets out the criteria on how much a plaintiff can collect depending on their level of fault.

Under Mississippi’s comparative negligence rule, a plaintiff can recover damages only if they were not more than 50 percent to blame for the injury or damages. If the plaintiff was more than 50 percent at fault, then they are barred from recovering any damages. If the plaintiff is less than 50 percent at fault and the defendant is more than 50 percent at fault then a plaintiff can recover damages, but the amount of damages is reduced depending on the degree of fault of the plaintiff.

In a case where the defendant’s conduct was partially responsible for the injury, the court will determine each party’s percentage of fault, and then the plaintiff will be able to recover damages only in the proportion that is equal to the defendant’s fault. For example, if the plaintiff is found to be 20 percent at fault, the defendant is found to be 80 percent at fault, and the court determines the damages to be a total of $100,000, the plaintiff could receive up to $80,000, depending on the amount of negligence attributed to the defendant.

In a joint and several liability case, each defendant is held liable for the full amount of the damages if the plaintiff can prove all parties have some degree of fault. This means that if there are multiple defendants, the court will determine the degree of fault for each party and then the plaintiff may seek damages from every defendant, regardless of whether that defendant was more or less than 50 percent at fault. The plaintiff is then eligible to receive payment from each individual defendant in the amount of their individual share.

In Mississippi, defendants may also introduce contributory negligence as a defense in cases involving personal injury, wrongful death, or property damage. In other words, the defendant may argue that the injured party was partially to blame for the incident and, thus, any damages that occur should be proportionately reduced according to their degree of fault. The Mississippi Supreme Court affirmed this right in the 1995 case Dahlman v. City of Tupelo.

In conclusion, Mississippi’s comparative negligence law sets out a framework of determining the responsibility of each party in cases involving personal injury or property damage. The plaintiff can only recover damages when they are less than 50 percent at fault and the damages are reduced according to the degree of fault. With regards to joint and several liability cases, where multiple parties are found to be partially responsible for the injury or damages, each defendant may be held liable for the full amount of the damages. Finally, it is important to remember that defendants still have a right to introduce contributory negligence as defense.