When more than one party contributes to a car accident in Georgia, O.C.G.A. 51-12-33 directs that fault be apportioned among them by percentage, with each defendant generally responsible only for their own share. This framework governs how responsibility is distributed in a multi-party collision.
Fault is assigned by percentage to each party. One driver who ran a light and another who was speeding might be assigned different shares, each tied to how their conduct contributed. The statute calls for determining the percentage of fault attributable to each party involved, so the analysis assigns a share to each driver whose conduct contributed to the collision.
Non-parties can be included in the allocation. The statute allows fault to be assigned to persons who are not named in the lawsuit, so the percentages may account for someone beyond the named defendants. Whether a non-party contributed, and to what degree, can affect the shares borne by others.
Each defendant generally bears only their own share. Under the apportionment framework, a defendant is generally responsible for the portion of damages matching their own percentage of fault, rather than the entire amount. How much any one defendant owes depends on their assigned share.
Apportioning fault among multiple drivers generally involves assigning a percentage to each party, the possible inclusion of non-parties, and each defendant bearing their own share. How conduct becomes a percentage, whether non-parties are involved, and how shares are allocated ultimately drive responsibility in a multi-party collision. Because each defendant is generally responsible only for their own share, the precise percentages assigned can significantly affect what any one party ultimately pays. Translating each driver’s conduct into those percentages is frequently the focus of a multi-party dispute.