Yes, shared liability can affect a personal injury claim. However, some people mistakenly believe that they cannot recover compensation if they contribute to the incident in any way. That is not true.
California operates under a “pure comparative negligence” system. This means that a victim can still recover compensation even if they share liability for the incident that caused their injury (even if they are up to 99% at fault). However, the total amount of compensation the injury victim receives will be reduced based on their percentage of fault.
For example, if a person slips and falls on a broken jar of mayonnaise in a grocery store aisle and breaks a hip, they may be entitled to compensation if the employees were aware of the food spill but did nothing to promptly clean it up. However, if the injured individual was staring at their phone screen and not watching where they were going when the incident occurred, it may be determined that they were 20% responsible for the incident. Suppose this person sustains losses of $100,000 due to their broken hip. Their total compensation may be reduced to $80,000 to account for their 20% of the fault.