What pure joint and several liability actually means
Rhode Island retains what's described as pure joint and several liability. In practice, this means a plaintiff can generally recover the full judgment amount from any one liable defendant — regardless of that particular defendant's individual percentage of fault — rather than being limited to collecting only that defendant's proportional share.
Why this combination genuinely matters
Pairing pure comparative negligence (no bar, ever, short of 100% fault) with pure joint and several liability (full recovery available from any one defendant) genuinely shifts practical risk. If one co-defendant turns out to be insolvent or otherwise unable to pay, the remaining defendant can still be on the hook for the entire judgment — rather than that risk falling on the plaintiff. This dramatically shapes settlement leverage and trial strategy in a multi-defendant Rhode Island case.
A genuine statutory bar: the seatbelt defense
Rhode Island law includes a specific statutory bar on the so-called "seatbelt defense" — an attempt by a defendant to argue that a plaintiff's own failure to wear a seatbelt amounts to comparative fault. This defense, available in some other states, is specifically barred under Rhode Island law.
Open and obvious hazards: weighed, not automatically excluded
As covered on our comparative negligence calculator page, an open and obvious hazard doesn't automatically bar a Rhode Island premises liability claim. It can still be weighed by the jury in apportioning fault percentages — it simply isn't, by itself, a complete defense the way it can be in some other states.
Who ultimately decides
If a case goes to trial, the jury determines both the fault percentages under the pure comparative rule and, where relevant, how liability is allocated among multiple defendants under the joint and several framework. In the far more common scenario of a negotiated settlement, the parties and their insurers effectively work out these same questions between themselves. See our Rhode Island comparative negligence calculator to see exactly what a given fault percentage would mean for your own recovery.