Comparative Fault in Texas in Houston, TX Chapter 33 Percentages and the Recovery Bar

The bar, stated exactly

Civil Practice and Remedies Code §33.001 bars a claimant from recovering damages, in an action to which Chapter 33 applies, where that claimant's own percentage of responsibility comes out greater than 50 percent. That is the whole rule on the bar: at or below the line, damages are reduced; above it, recovery is barred. Section 33.012(a) provides that if a claimant is not barred, the court shall reduce the amount of damages to be recovered by a percentage equal to the claimant's percentage of responsibility. Subsection (b) requires a further reduction by the sum of all dollar amounts of settlements. These are the arithmetic provisions, applied after responsibility has been determined rather than during a phone call.

Who assigns the percentages, and how

Section 33.003 requires the trier of fact, as to each cause of action asserted, to determine the percentage of responsibility with respect to each claimant, each defendant, each settling person, and each responsible third party who has been designated, and to state those percentages in whole numbers. Section 33.011 supplies the definitions the process depends on, including responsible third party and settling person. Nothing in the chapter authorizes an insurance adjuster to determine a percentage, and an adjuster who states one has stated a negotiating position. That distinction is worth keeping in mind before agreeing that a figure is settled.

The joint and several provision

Section 33.013(a) provides that a liable defendant is liable only for the percentage of the damages found by the trier of fact equal to that defendant's percentage of responsibility. Subsection (b) provides that a liable defendant is jointly and severally liable for the damages recoverable by the claimant, other than exemplary damages, if that defendant's percentage of responsibility is greater than 50 percent. In a multi-vehicle sequence, which happens often enough on Houston freeway approaches, that provision changes who a judgment can be collected from, and it is a further reason the identity and role of every vehicle in the sequence belongs in the record.

The facts that percentage arguments run on

Percentage disputes about riders tend to reduce to a short list: lane position, speed, following distance, visibility, and reaction. The evidence that speaks to those is not a recollection but the physical scene and its records: vehicle contact points photographed from several distances, tire and gouge marks, debris fields, the position of the motorcycle and the other vehicle at rest, the signal or sign controlling the approach, and each witness's actual vantage point. Transportation Code §545.0605 states that a motorcycle operator is entitled to full use of a lane, which is a statutory answer to an argument that a rider's position within a lane was itself irregular.

Statewide factor counts, and what they do not show

TxDOT's 2024 contributing factor table records 35,984 Texas crashes with a factor of failing to yield right of way while turning left, including 143 fatal crashes and 1,106 suspected serious injury crashes, along with 50,287 crashes attributed to changing lane when unsafe and 21,048 to following too closely, from crash reports processed as of April 9, 2025. Those are statewide totals across all road users. An officer-recorded contributing factor on a crash report is not a determination of responsibility under Chapter 33, and a rider should not treat either a favorable or an unfavorable entry as a resolution of the question.

Local reference points and where advice belongs

Airline accounts for 11 of the 906 half-mile segments on the City of Houston High Injury Network, which mapped traffic deaths and serious injuries from 2014 through 2018 across all road users using a threshold of at least 4.5 severe crashes per half-mile segment. TxDOT recorded 115,173 total crashes in Harris County in 2024. Preserve the crash report number, photographs, video leads, witness contacts and positions, and medical and repair records, and avoid converting an impression about speed or distance into a number. This page is general information about Texas statutes and published crash data, not legal advice. An apportionment question belongs with the attorney who advertises on this site or another attorney the reader chooses.