Can You Still Recover If You Were Partly at Fault? Nevada's Comparative Negligence Rule

One of the most common reasons people never call anyone about an injury is a belief that the accident was partly their fault, so there is no point. In Nevada, that assumption is often wrong.

The basic rule

Nevada follows what is known as modified comparative negligence (NRS 41.141). In plain terms: you can still recover compensation as long as you were not more at fault than the other party. Your recovery is then reduced by your share of the blame.

A simple illustration. Suppose damages are assessed at $100,000 and you are found 20% responsible. You would generally recover $80,000 — the full amount reduced by your 20% share. If you were found 50% responsible, you could still recover, but only half.

Cross the line into being more responsible than the other side, however, and Nevada bars recovery entirely. That threshold is why the specific percentage assigned to you matters so much, and why it is so heavily contested.

Who decides your percentage

Ultimately a jury does, if a case goes that far. Practically, most claims settle, and the number gets negotiated between your attorney and the insurance company based on the evidence: the police report, photographs, witness accounts, vehicle damage patterns, traffic camera footage, and expert analysis in serious cases.

This is the important part — the insurance company’s opening position on your fault is not a finding, it is a negotiating stance. Adjusters routinely assign injured people a higher share of blame than the evidence supports, precisely because it reduces what they have to pay. An early, confident-sounding phone call telling you the accident was your fault is a tactic, not a verdict.

Situations where people wrongly assume they have no case

• You were speeding slightly when someone turned left in front of you. Both parties may share fault, but the turning driver often carries the larger share.
• You were rear-ended after braking suddenly. Following too closely is a heavy factor against the rear driver.
• You slipped on a wet floor you might have noticed. Property owners still owe duties around warning signs, cleanup, and inspection.
• You were not wearing a seatbelt. This affects some arguments but does not necessarily eliminate a claim about who caused the crash.

None of these outcomes are automatic. They depend entirely on the facts — which is the point. A percentage of fault is an argument to be made, not an obvious truth you should decide about yourself before anyone has looked at the evidence.

What this means practically

If you have been telling yourself you probably do not have a case because you made a mistake too, the honest answer is that you do not know that yet, and neither does the insurance company. It costs nothing to have someone qualified look at it.

Answer a few questions about what happened and we will connect you with a participating law firm that can evaluate where fault realistically falls. Free, confidential, and no obligation.