As lawyers love to say in response to any question: “It depends.” Generally, in South Carolina, you may still recover actual compensatory damages, even if you contributed to your injuries, unless your degree of fault was greater than that of the at fault party. We call this modified comparative negligence.
For example, if the jury determines that you were 50% or less at fault and the other party was 50% or greater at fault, then you can still recover some damages. However, your final award will be reduced by your percentage of contribution to the incident. So, if you are in a wreck and were speeding, but another driver ran a red light, the jury may find you were 15% at fault and the driver who ran the red light was 85% at fault. Assuming you have damages of $50,000, your award would be reduced by $7,500, but you would still receive $42,500.00 in total damages.