Utah's rule: barred at an exact tie
Under Utah Code § 78B-5-818, "the fault of a person seeking recovery may not alone bar recovery" — unless that fault reaches 50% or more, at which point recovery is barred entirely. This is the stricter of the two common modified thresholds: an exact 50-50 split bars recovery in Utah, unlike states that still allow recovery at an even split.
Worked example
Someone with $100,000 in damages, found 49% at fault, recovers $51,000. That same person, found exactly 50% at fault, recovers nothing at all.
A genuinely distinctive wrinkle: Utah's no-fault PIP threshold
Here's something that catches many people off guard. Utah is a no-fault state for auto accidents, which means a car accident claimant generally must first cross a separate Personal Injury Protection (PIP) tort threshold before the fault-based comparative negligence analysis under § 78B-5-818 even comes into play. See our full guide to how fault and no-fault rules work together in Utah for what this means in practice, including a genuinely reassuring detail about what happens to your PIP benefits even if the 50% bar applies.
No joint and several liability
Utah abolished joint and several liability alongside its comparative fault statute. A defendant found liable is now generally responsible only for their own proportional share of fault, not a co-defendant's share as well.