Yes, But: Can You Still Recover Damages If You Were Partially at Fault in Massachusetts?
Short answer: probably. Longer answer: it depends on a number that insurance adjusters would love for you to never fully understand. If you have been replaying an accident in your head, wondering whether your own actions cost you any chance at compensation, this is the question worth actually getting answered rather than guessed at.
The Answer Hinges on a Single Percentage
Massachusetts law allows injured people to recover damages even when they share some responsibility for what happened, under the modified comparative negligence rule found in Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 231, Section 85. The key is whether your fault stays at 50 percent or below. If it does, you can still recover, though your total award gets reduced by your percentage of fault. Cross into 51 percent or higher, and recovery is off the table entirely.
That single number does a lot of work. Two claims with nearly identical facts can end in wildly different outcomes depending on whether an injured person is assigned 45 percent fault or 55 percent fault, even though the practical difference between those two scenarios might be minor.
Why Insurers Push Fault Percentages So Hard
Here is something worth understanding early: an insurance company’s fault assessment is not a neutral calculation. It is a business decision. The higher the percentage of fault assigned to you, the less the company has to pay, and that incentive shapes how adjusters approach a claim from the very first phone call.
Fault disputes commonly show up in situations such as:
- A rear-end collision where the front driver made an unexpected lane change
- A slip and fall where a warning sign was present but arguably inadequate
- A dog bite where the injured person had reached toward the animal
- A construction site injury involving a worker who bypassed a posted safety barrier
None of these scenarios are automatically disqualifying. They simply mean fault will likely be contested, and the outcome depends heavily on the evidence gathered and how persuasively it gets presented.
What This Means for Your Next Move
If you suspect fault will be an issue in your case, waiting to see what an insurer decides is rarely a winning strategy. Evidence that supports a lower fault percentage, witness statements, photos, accident reconstruction, and even prior safety complaints, tends to be far easier to gather early than months later once memories fade and records get harder to obtain.
Contact The Law Office of Joseph Linnehan, Jr. About Your Case
Being partially at fault does not automatically close the door on compensation, but the percentage assigned to you matters enormously to your bottom line. Our Boston personal injury lawyers at The Law Office of Joseph Linnehan, Jr. have spent years pushing back against inflated fault assessments, and we are ready to look into what happened in your accident. Contact our team today for guidance.
Source:
malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartIII/TitleII/Chapter231/Section85
