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Texas insurance glossary

Proportionate responsibility

Proportionate responsibility is the Texas rule that splits fault for a crash between everyone involved as percentages, and bars recovery by anyone more than fifty per cent responsible.

Sources checked

Fault is apportioned rather than assigned. Two drivers can be sixty and forty per cent responsible, and the recovery each is entitled to is reduced by their own share.

The fifty-one per cent bar is the hard edge. A driver found more than half responsible recovers nothing from the other party, which is why insurers argue about ten-point differences that look academic from outside.

It is also why a claim can be paid in part rather than accepted or denied — a settlement reduced by a percentage is the system working as written, not the insurer being difficult.

Sources: Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code ch. 33 — Proportionate Responsibility; TDI — automobile insurance guide (CB020). Verified .

A definition, not legal advice and not a quote. Rules and figures change; confirm your own situation against the source named above, or with us, before you act on it. Last checked .

See also

  • At-fault Texas is an at-fault state, which means the driver who caused a crash is the one whose liability coverage pays for the harm done to everybody else.
  • Liability coverage Liability coverage is the part of an auto policy that pays other people for injury or damage the insured driver causes; it repairs nothing belonging to the insured.
  • Bodily injury liability Bodily injury liability is the part of an auto policy that pays other people for injuries the insured driver causes, up to a limit per person and a larger limit per crash.
  • Uninsured motorist Uninsured motorist coverage pays the insured for injury and damage caused by a driver who has no liability insurance, or by a hit-and-run driver who is never identified.

Where this is handled

Knowing what a coverage is called is not the same as knowing what is on your policy. One independent agency can read your declarations page with you and compare the markets that will write your record.

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