Three systems, and Missouri uses the most forgiving
American fault law generally splits into three real categories: pure comparative fault, modified comparative fault (with either a 50% or 51% fault-percentage bar), and pure contributory negligence. Missouri uses pure comparative fault — the most claimant-friendly of these three approaches.
No threshold, period
Under a modified comparative system, crossing a fixed fault percentage — 50% in some states, 51% in others — eliminates recovery entirely. Missouri's pure system contains no such cutoff at all. A claimant found 70% at fault, or even 90% at fault, still recovers a proportional share of their damages rather than nothing.
A genuinely unusual origin
Most states that use some form of comparative fault adopted it through legislation. Missouri's version is a real exception: the Missouri Supreme Court created the rule itself in Gustafson v. Benda (1983), adopting the Uniform Comparative Fault Act judicially and abolishing contributory negligence, last clear chance, and humanitarian negligence all at once — years before the legislature formally codified parts of the new system in 1987.
A genuine minority nationally
Roughly a dozen states, including Missouri, California, New York, and Mississippi, use some form of pure comparative fault, while more than 30 states use a modified version with a fault-percentage cutoff instead.
The stricter alternative: contributory negligence
At the far stricter end of the spectrum sit the contributory negligence jurisdictions — Alabama, Maryland, North Carolina, Virginia, and DC — where any fault at all, even 1%, bars recovery entirely. Missouri's rule stands in genuine, direct contrast to this approach: there, fault simply doesn't close the door, no matter how large a share of it belongs to the claimant.
Where Missouri fits among its pure comparative peers
See our guide to the other pure comparative fault states for Missouri's closest peer group nationally, and how its rule compares to the other dozen or so states that share this same forgiving approach.