Comparative negligence rules in Wyoming

After a Wyoming crash, expect the other driver's insurer to argue you share the blame. That argument isn't just noise. Under Wyoming law, the percentage of fault assigned to you sets how much you can collect, and past one specific line it decides whether you collect anything at all.

The 50 percent bar

Wyoming uses modified comparative fault, set out in Wyo. Stat. 1-1-109. The statute says contributory fault "shall not bar a recovery ... if the contributory fault of the claimant is not more than fifty percent (50%) of the total fault of all actors," and that any damages "shall be diminished in proportion to the amount of fault attributed to the claimant."¹

Two rules fall out of that sentence. If your share of fault is 50% or less, you can still recover, but your award is cut by your percentage. If your share reaches 51% or more, you recover nothing. Attorneys often call this the 51% bar, though the statute's actual line is "more than fifty percent."¹ The gap between 50% and 51% is the gap between a reduced check and no check, which is why so many Wyoming injury disputes are really fights over the last slice of blame.

A quick example. Suppose your damages total $100,000 and the jury finds you 20% at fault. You collect $80,000. At 40% fault you'd collect $60,000. At exactly 50% you still recover, now $50,000. At 51% you're barred and take home zero.

How fault gets divided, and to whom

Wyoming spreads fault across everyone who helped cause the crash, not only the people you sued. The statute defines an "actor" as "a person or other entity, including the claimant, whose fault is determined to be a proximate cause of the death, injury or damage, whether or not the actor is a party to the litigation."¹

That last clause does a lot of work. A hit-and-run driver, a defendant you chose not to name, or a party who already settled can still be handed a percentage of fault, and that percentage counts in the "total fault of all actors" your share is measured against.¹ Defense lawyers use this on purpose. Pointing at an empty chair, some absent or unnamed driver, shifts blame off their client and, in a close case, can lift you over the 50% line. It's a routine tactic in shared-fault Wyoming cases, and one reason it pays to identify every at-fault actor early.

The division itself is made by the fact-finder. Wyo. Stat. 1-1-109(c) directs the jury, or the judge in a trial without a jury, to find the total amount of damages without regard to your fault, then set the percentage of fault attributable to each actor.¹ Those percentages drive the math for everything that follows.

Each defendant pays only its own share

Here Wyoming breaks sharply from states that keep joint and several liability. Under Wyo. Stat. 1-1-109(e), "each defendant is liable only to the extent of that defendant's proportion of the total fault."¹ The legislature abolished joint and several liability in 1986 and repealed the old right of contribution among joint tortfeasors in the same act.¹ The Wyoming Supreme Court has applied this proportionate-share rule in decisions including Anderson Highway Signs & Supply, Inc. v. Close and Pinnacle Bank v. Villa.²³

The stakes here are practical. Say two other drivers are each found 40% at fault and you are 20%. You can recover 40% of your damages from each of them, but you cannot force one solvent defendant to cover the other's 40% if that second driver is broke or uninsured. On Wyoming's long rural highways, with heavy out-of-state and commercial traffic, an at-fault driver with no assets and thin coverage is a real possibility. State law sets minimum liability limits at just 25/50/20: $25,000 per person and $50,000 per crash for bodily injury, and $20,000 for property damage.⁴ When the at-fault driver carries only the minimum, their share may not cover your losses, and no co-defendant is on the hook for the difference.

That gap is why uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage matters here. Every auto liability policy in Wyoming must include UM coverage unless the named insured rejects it in writing, under Wyo. Stat. 31-10-101.⁵ UM and UIM can step in where several liability and a thin policy leave you short.

No no-fault, and no cap on what's left

Comparative fault carries the full weight of a Wyoming claim, because there's no no-fault or PIP system underneath it. Wyoming is a traditional at-fault tort state. You pursue the at-fault driver and that driver's insurer, and your recovery rises or falls with the fault percentages.⁶ Medical payments coverage is an optional first-party add-on that pays some medical bills regardless of fault, but it doesn't change who is legally responsible, and no PIP product is sold in the state.⁶

There's a real upside on the other side of the ledger. A reduced award is not a capped award. The Wyoming Constitution bars the legislature from limiting damages for injury or death, with a narrow medical-malpractice exception that doesn't reach car crashes.⁷ Comparative fault can shrink your recovery, but nothing caps the amount that survives the cut.

Deadlines and property damage

The fault math only matters if your claim is still alive. Wyoming gives you four years from the date of the crash to file a personal-injury lawsuit, under Wyo. Stat. 1-3-105(a)(iv)(C).⁸ The same statute allows four years for damage to personal property, including your vehicle.⁸ Let the deadline pass and the comparative-fault analysis never happens, because there's no case left to analyze.

The percentage reduction applies to property claims too. If you're found 30% at fault, your vehicle-damage recovery drops by 30%, and so does any Wyoming diminished value claim for the lost resale value of a repaired car.

What this means after a crash

Because a single percentage point can end a claim, evidence about who did what tends to decide Wyoming cases. The official crash report, scene photos, vehicle damage, and independent witnesses usually carry more weight than either driver's account, and that's doubly true on snow and ice. Cheyenne alone averages close to 63 inches of snow a season, and in winter pileups both drivers tend to blame the road.⁹ You can request the official crash report from WYDOT.¹⁰

When liability is contested, or more than one driver may share the blame, the allocation gets complicated fast, and small shifts in the percentages change what you can collect. If that's your situation, it's worth talking with an attorney who handles Wyoming crash claims. You can find one through the directory.

This article is general information about Wyoming law, not legal advice for your specific situation.

Sources

1. Wyo. Stat. § 1-1-109 (Comparative fault), Wyoming Legislature, Title 1 (Code of Civil Procedure). https://wyoleg.gov/statutes/compress/title01.pdf

2. Anderson Highway Signs & Supply, Inc. v. Close, 6 P.3d 123 (Wyo. 2000), CourtListener. https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/2594816/anderson-highway-signs-supply-inc-v-close/

3. Pinnacle Bank v. Villa, 2004 WY 150, 100 P.3d 1287 (Wyo. 2004), CourtListener. https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/2634463/pinnacle-bank-v-villa/

4. Wyo. Stat. § 31-9-405 (minimum motor vehicle liability limits). https://law.justia.com/codes/wyoming/title-31/chapter-9/article-4/section-31-9-405/

5. Wyo. Stat. § 31-10-101 (uninsured motorist coverage). https://law.justia.com/codes/wyoming/title-31/chapter-10/section-31-10-101/

6. Wyoming Department of Insurance, consumer insurance topics. https://doi.wyo.gov/consumers/insurance-topics

7. Wyoming Constitution, art. 10, § 4, Wyoming Secretary of State. https://sos.wyo.gov/Forms/Publications/WYConstitution.pdf

8. Wyo. Stat. § 1-3-105(a)(iv) (Actions; time limitations). https://law.justia.com/codes/wyoming/title-1/chapter-3/section-1-3-105/

9. National Weather Service, Cheyenne climate data. https://www.weather.gov/cys/cliplotmntable

10. Wyoming Department of Transportation, requesting crash reports. https://www.dot.state.wy.us/home/dot_safety/crash-reports/requesting-crash-reports.html