Four systems, and Utah chose the stricter modified version
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. Utah uses the 50% bar under Utah Code § 78B-5-818 — the stricter of the two modified thresholds.
The precise difference, at the exact tie
A claimant found exactly 50% at fault recovers half of their damages under the more forgiving 51%-bar version used in many other states, because that fault "does not exceed" the defendant's. Under Utah's rule, that same exact 50-50 split bars recovery entirely, because the statute cuts off recovery once fault reaches 50%, not only once it exceeds that level.
A genuinely smaller, stricter peer group
Utah belongs to a smaller group of roughly 11 states using this stricter threshold, compared to the larger group of states using the more forgiving 51% bar. See our guide to the other states using a 50% bar for Utah's closest peer group nationally.
A package deal: liability reform alongside the fault bar
The same statutory framework that established Utah's 50% bar also abolished joint and several liability, moving the state to a several-only system where each defendant generally pays only their own proportional share.
The other two systems, for context
At the more generous end, pure comparative negligence states like California never bar recovery for ordinary fault at all. At the far stricter end, a small handful of contributory negligence jurisdictions bar recovery entirely for any fault, even 1%.