What is Comparative Negligence? - Insurance Navy. Comparative negligence is a legal principle in certain jurisdictions to proportionate responsibility among the involved parties in an auto accident or bodily injury. It is a system that compares the degree of negligence and assigns a percentage of responsibility to each party. The percentage of fault attributed determines the compensation for damages that each party is entitled to receive.
In a comparative negligence system, an insured plaintiff’s percentage of negligence does not necessarily bar them from recovering damages, but it can reduce the amount they are entitled to. For instance, if a plaintiff is found to be 30% at fault for an accident, they may only recover 70% of their total damages from the other party. There are two types of comparative negligence systems: pure and modified. In a pure system, a plaintiff can recover damages even if they have a high degree of negligence. Insurance companies use this system to determine how much an insurer will pay on an insurance claim.