The more common modified comparative threshold
Among the US states that use some form of modified comparative negligence, a majority use the more forgiving 51% threshold — recovery is barred only once the claimant's fault actually exceeds the defendant's. A smaller group of 12 states uses a stricter 50% version instead, where recovery is barred at fault merely equal to the other side's.
The 21 states using a 51% bar
Pennsylvania's peer group under this more common threshold is: Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana (for accidents from 2026 onward), Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Vermont, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
A shared threshold with a close neighbor
Pennsylvania's neighbor New Jersey also uses the 51% bar, making this a shared rule across that state line. But New Jersey's own approach to multiple-defendant liability looks genuinely different: it sets a distinctive 60% fault threshold for triggering full joint-and-several liability on an individual defendant, a structurally different approach from Pennsylvania's several-only Fair Share Act framework.
A genuinely distinctive application within this shared group
Here's the detail that sets Pennsylvania apart from much of this list. Its 2011 Fair Share Act moved the state toward several-only liability for most defendants — each one generally pays only their own percentage of fault. Several other states in this 51%-bar group still apply some version of joint-and-several liability under various conditions, making liability division a genuinely variable feature even among states that share the same 51% recovery threshold.
Why this matters in a disputed claim
Because none of these 21 states bars recovery at an even 50/50 split, a disputed fault percentage near the midpoint still results in meaningful recovery across the group — and in Pennsylvania specifically, how that recovery actually gets collected from multiple defendants depends on the Fair Share Act's several-only framework. See our full comparison of how Pennsylvania's rule fits among all four fault systems for the complete picture.