What is the 51 percent bar rule in Florida?
The rule is widely described as the 51 percent bar. The statutory language is different, and in one situation the difference decides everything.
What the statute says. A party found greater than 50 percent at fault for their own harm may not recover damages.
Why the phrasing matters. At exactly 50 percent, a claimant is not greater than 50 percent — so recovery is reduced by half rather than barred. Under a literal "51 percent" formulation, a 50 percent allocation would look like a gray area. It isn't.
When does an even split happen? More often than you'd think. Intersection cases, lane-change cases, and cases where both drivers contributed frequently produce close allocations, and juries do return 50-50 findings.
What this means in practice. In a genuinely close case, the difference between a jury answering 50 and answering 51 is the entire claim. That's why the evidence on every contributing factor matters, even ones that seem minor.
Fifty is not fifty-one. In a close case, that's the whole thing. ---
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