In order to properly demonstrate how reduced compensation works, we want to set up a relatively simple theoretical injury scenario. Suppose you are going through a grocery store when you slip on a spill of orange juice from a container that fell off the shelf. In this scenario, let us suppose that you sustained $10,000 worth of medical bills. In general, if you can show that the grocery store employees knew about the spill but failed to promptly clean it up, you would be able to recover full compensation for your losses.
However, for the purposes of this scenario, let us suppose that you were looking at your phone browsing through social media when the incident occurred and did not see the spill. In this incident, it is entirely possible that a personal injury jury may find that you were 30% responsible for the incident because you were staring at your phone when the incident occurred.
In this scenario, you would be awarded $7,000 instead of the full $10,000 to account for your percentage of fault.