Four systems, and Florida now spans two of them
American fault law splits into four real categories: pure comparative negligence, modified comparative negligence with a 50% bar, modified comparative negligence with a 51% bar, and pure contributory negligence. Florida is genuinely unusual in that it now uses two different systems depending on the claim: the 51% bar for most negligence claims, and pure comparative negligence specifically preserved for medical malpractice.
Before 2023: pure comparative negligence for everything
For decades before House Bill 837, Florida applied pure comparative negligence across the board. A claimant found 90% at fault could still recover 10% of their damages — no threshold anywhere eliminated a claim purely for the claimant's own high degree of fault.
After March 24, 2023: a 51% bar for most claims
HB 837 changed that for general negligence claims: a claimant found more than 50% at fault is now barred from recovery entirely. This puts Florida's general rule in the same category as roughly 21 other states that use a 51% bar, rather than the smaller, more forgiving group of pure comparative states it used to belong to.
Medical malpractice: deliberately left alone
What makes Florida's current system genuinely distinctive is the exception the legislature carved out: medical malpractice claims under Chapter 766 were explicitly excluded from the shift, and remain pure comparative. A claimant in a malpractice case can still recover a reduced share of damages no matter how high their own fault percentage climbs, exactly as under the old rule.
Comparing Florida's new rule to the stricter 50%-bar states
Florida's post-2023 general rule is one point more forgiving than the stricter 50%-bar states, like Colorado and Arkansas, where recovery is barred at fault merely equal to the defendant's. In Florida, a claimant exactly 50% at fault still recovers a reduced amount; only crossing to 51% eliminates the claim.
Contributory negligence: the strictest extreme, still untouched by any of this
Far stricter still are the five pure contributory negligence jurisdictions — Alabama, Maryland, North Carolina, Virginia, and DC — where any fault at all bars recovery completely. Florida's reform, however dramatic, never moved the state anywhere near that extreme. See our guide to Florida's new peer group among the 51%-bar states for the fuller national picture.