Common Questions / Fault & Liability
Can I still recover if the accident was partly my fault?
Usually, yes. Texas follows a modified comparative fault rule: you can recover as long as you are not more than 50 percent responsible, and your recovery is reduced by your percentage of fault.
How Texas proportionate responsibility works
Texas's proportionate responsibility law requires the fact finder, usually a jury, to assign a percentage of responsibility to every person involved in causing a crash. If your percentage is 50 or less, you recover, but your damages are reduced by your share. If your percentage is 51 or more, you recover nothing. The math is straightforward: a jury finds your damages are $100,000 and finds you 20 percent responsible, and your judgment is $80,000. Find you 51 percent responsible, and it is zero.
Fault percentages are argued, not measured
There is no machine that outputs a fault percentage. It is a judgment call made by jurors after hearing evidence, which means it is built by advocacy: the crash report, the physical evidence, the vehicle damage patterns, the witness accounts, and in serious cases, accident reconstruction. Two lawyers can take the same facts and land twenty points apart. That is why the percentage assigned to you should never be treated as fixed just because an adjuster announced it.
The adjuster's favorite tool
Comparative fault is the insurance industry's most flexible discount lever. An adjuster who cannot deny that their driver ran the light will instead claim you were speeding, could have swerved, or were distracted, and shave 20 or 30 percent off the claim's value with an allegation that costs them nothing to make. This is also why recorded statements are dangerous: an offhand guess about your speed or a polite apology becomes the foundation for a fault percentage you will spend the rest of the case fighting.
What this means for your case
Being partly at fault, or being accused of it, is not a reason to abandon a claim. It is a reason to treat the fault allocation as the contested battleground it is. Evidence gathered early, witnesses locked in before memories drift, and a firm that prepares the case for a jury rather than for a quick file closure are what move that percentage, and every point it moves is money.
Injured in Arizona? Some rules on this page are Texas-specific. Arizona differs on points that change outcomes, including pure comparative fault and government-claim deadlines. See our Arizona answers or call (888) 508-6967.
Related: Car Accident Lawyer · Recorded Statements · Submit Your Case · All Common Questions
This page is general information about Texas law, not legal advice about your specific situation. Deadlines and outcomes depend on facts; talk to a lawyer about yours.
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