Joint and several liability is a legal rule that applies when multiple parties are responsible for causing the same injury or accident, allowing the injured person to collect the full amount of their damages from any one of the responsible parties, regardless of each party's individual percentage of fault. This means that if three different defendants are each found to be partially at fault for your injuries, you can choose to collect your entire compensation from whichever defendant has the most money or best insurance coverage, rather than having to collect separate smaller amounts from each one. The defendant who pays the full amount can then seek reimbursement from the other responsible parties.
This legal concept protects injured victims from being left without full compensation when multiple parties share blame for an accident. For example, if you're injured in a car accident caused by both a drunk driver and a poorly maintained traffic signal, and the drunk driver has no insurance or assets, you could still collect your full damages from the city responsible for the traffic signal under joint and several liability. However, some states have modified or eliminated this rule in certain situations, requiring victims to collect damages from each defendant based only on their individual percentage of fault, which can sometimes leave injured people unable to recover full compensation.
