Pennsylvania’s Fair Share Act, codified at 42 Pa. C.S. ยง 7102, limits each defendant in a civil lawsuit to paying only their own percentage of fault rather than the full judgment. If a jury finds you 30% responsible for a $200,000 injury, your maximum exposure is $60,000, and another defendant’s inability to pay cannot be shifted onto you. That default flips back to full liability only in a short list of situations spelled out in the statute itself.
What the Act Replaced
The Fair Share Act took effect on June 28, 2011. Before that date, Pennsylvania followed joint and several liability for most negligence claims. A plaintiff who won a judgment against multiple defendants could collect the entire amount from any one of them, regardless of how much blame that defendant actually carried. A company found just 5% at fault could be forced to pay 100% of the damages if the other defendants were insolvent or uninsured.
Under the current rule, each defendant’s liability is several and not joint. The court enters a separate judgment against each defendant for that defendant’s apportioned share of the total damages, and the plaintiff collects from each one independently.
How Fault Percentages Turn Into Dollars
The jury, or the judge in a bench trial, assigns a specific percentage of fault to every party involved, including the plaintiff. Each defendant then owes damages equal to their assigned share of the total award, and nothing more. On a $500,000 verdict with no plaintiff fault split among three defendants at 40%, 35%, and 25%, they owe $200,000, $175,000, and $125,000 respectively.1Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code Title 42, Chapter 71, Section 7102 – Comparative Negligence Each payment stands on its own.
When a Plaintiff’s Own Fault Bars Recovery
The same statute contains a rule that can end the case entirely. Under section 7102(a), a plaintiff who was partly at fault can still recover, but only if their own negligence was “not greater than the causal negligence of the defendant or defendants.”1Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code Title 42, Chapter 71, Section 7102 – Comparative Negligence Cross the 50% line and the plaintiff recovers nothing. At 50% or below, damages are reduced by the plaintiff’s share. A plaintiff found 30% at fault on a $100,000 verdict takes home $70,000.
Defense attorneys routinely argue that the plaintiff’s own conduct pushed their share past the threshold, and the injuries do not matter if the jury agrees. How the plaintiff behaved before and during the incident is squarely at issue.
Exceptions That Bring Back Full Liability
Section 7102(a.1)(3) identifies five situations where the Fair Share Act’s protection disappears and a single defendant can be forced to pay the entire judgment.2Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code 42 Pa. C.S. 7102 – Comparative Negligence
- Any defendant found 60% or more responsible loses several-liability protection and can be held liable for the full judgment when co-defendants cannot pay.
- Intentional torts, such as assault or battery, sit outside the Act. The defendant who intentionally caused harm faces full liability regardless of assigned percentage.
- Intentional misrepresentation is carved out separately, so fraud defendants cannot cap their exposure at a percentage.
- Releases or threatened releases of hazardous materials under the Hazardous Sites Cleanup Act fall outside proportionate liability.
- Liquor Code violations, meaning service of a visibly intoxicated person who then causes injury, trigger joint and several liability for the establishment.
The 60% threshold is where most courtroom fights happen. A defendant at 59% owes only 59% of the damages. A defendant at 60% can owe the whole thing.
What Happens When a Defendant Cannot Pay
Proportionate liability hits hardest when a defendant is insolvent or uninsured. Because each defendant’s liability is capped at their percentage, the plaintiff absorbs any shortfall. Take a $500,000 judgment split among three defendants at 50%, 30%, and 20%. If the 50% defendant is judgment-proof, the plaintiff collects only $250,000 from the other two, and the remaining $250,000 stays unrecovered.1Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code Title 42, Chapter 71, Section 7102 – Comparative Negligence
The exception is the 60% rule. If the insolvent defendant crossed that line, any co-defendant who also crossed it faces joint and several liability. When no defendant hits 60%, the loss stays with the plaintiff.
Settling Defendants and the Verdict Sheet
When one defendant settles before trial, the remaining defendants often want the jury to assign a share of fault to the absent party, which reduces their combined exposure. Section 7102(a.2) allows this “upon appropriate requests and proofs by any party.”1Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code Title 42, Chapter 71, Section 7102 – Comparative Negligence If the jury assigns 25% to the settling party, the remaining defendants’ combined bill drops by that amount.
Getting a settling party onto the verdict sheet is not automatic. The trial judge decides whether the remaining defendants have shown enough evidence for a jury to reasonably find the absent party liable. Employers covered by workers’ compensation immunity cannot be included in the apportionment at all, because the Workers’ Compensation Act shields them from tort liability.
Strict Liability and Asbestos Claims
The Act’s text reaches “actions for strict liability,” but the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s ruling in Roverano held that percentage-based apportionment does not fit asbestos cases. Because strict liability is liability without fault, the court found it “improper to introduce concepts of fault in the damage-apportionment process” for those claims. Liability among asbestos defendants is divided per capita, so each liable defendant bears an equal share rather than a fault-weighted one.3FindLaw. Roverano v. John Crane Inc If you are pursuing or defending a strict liability claim in Pennsylvania, the Fair Share Act’s percentage system may not control depending on the type of case.