Question

The plaintiff was driving inattentively when she had to swerve to avoid two other negligently driven vehicles at a busy intersection, and her car struck a light pole. The plaintiff, who was the only driver injured, sued one of the other drivers to recover damages in a jurisdiction that has adopted pure comparative negligence. The jury determined that she suffered injuries of $100,000 and was 50% at fault. If the plaintiff is awarded a recovery of only $25,000 from the defendant, what will be the most likely reason

Answer 1

Answer: The jurisdiction has abolished joint and several liability.

Explanation:

Following the information given in the question, if the plaintiff is awarded a recovery of only $25,000 from the defendant, then the most likely reason will be that the jurisdiction has abolished joint and several liability.

It should be noted that under joint and several liability, the plantiff would have been awarded $50000 as each tortfeasor will be liable to the price of the damage that was incurred, hence the plantiff will get $50000 but in this case $25000 is given because the joint and several liability has been abolished by the jurisdiction.