Can You Receive Compensation If You Are Partially at Fault for a Truck Accident?
After a serious highway accident involving a commercial tractor-trailer, liability is rarely black and white. Perhaps the semi-truck made an illegal lane change without signaling, but you were driving 5 mph over the speed limit. In these complex scenarios, the trucking company’s defense team will aggressively point fingers, claiming that your own driving errors caused the crash.
Many victims mistakenly believe that if they bear even a fraction of the blame, they are legally barred from recovering any financial damages. However, understanding whether you can receive compensation if you are partially at fault for a truck accident depends entirely on your state’s specific comparative negligence laws.
In comparative negligence systems, a court assigns a percentage of fault to each party involved in the collision (e.g., the truck driver is 80% at fault, and you are 20% at fault). Your total financial award is simply reduced by your exact percentage of responsibility. If your total damages equal $1,000,000 and you are 20% at fault, you still receive a massive $800,000 payout.
The Three Legal Standards Across the U.S.
Depending on the jurisdiction where the accident occurred, your right to recover damages will fall into one of three legal categories:
This is the most common standard used in the majority of U.S. states (such as Texas, Florida, and Ohio). Under this rule, you can recover compensation as long as your percentage of fault does not reach 50% or 51% (depending on the state). If you are found to be 51% responsible, your compensation drops to $0.
In states like California, New York, and Illinois, you can recover damages no matter how great your fault is. Even if a jury determines you were 90% at fault for the crash with the 18-wheeler, you are still legally entitled to collect 10% of your total medical bills and property damages from the trucking company.
In a small handful of strict jurisdictions (including Virginia, Maryland, and North Carolina), if you are found to be even 1% at fault for the accident, you are completely prohibited from recovering any compensation at all. This makes aggressive legal defense essential in these states.
Fighting Back Against Unfair Fault Allocation
Because crossing the 50% fault threshold can cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars, trucking insurers will fight aggressively to exaggerate your mistakes. An experienced transportation legal team will push back by subpoenaing the truck’s Electronic Data Recorder (EDR Black Box) and dashcam footage, proving that the commercial driver’s FMCSA violations (like speeding or Hours of Service fatigue) were the true primary cause of the wreck.