Virginia's rule: any fault, not a percentage, is what matters
Unlike most states, Virginia doesn't ask "what percentage were you at fault" to calculate a proportional reduction. Virginia follows pure contributory negligence: if the plaintiff's own negligence contributed to the injury in any way — in theory, even 1% — that alone can bar recovery entirely, regardless of how much more at fault the defendant was.
Worked example
Someone with $100,000 in damages, found 95% at fault for a defendant's negligence and 5% at fault themselves, would in theory recover nothing at all under this rule — a dramatically different outcome than the proportional reduction most other states would apply to that same 5%.
A deliberate, actively maintained choice
Virginia is one of only a handful of US jurisdictions — alongside Alabama, Maryland, North Carolina, and Washington D.C. — that still follows this pure contributory negligence standard. The Virginia Supreme Court has explicitly declined to replace it with a comparative fault system on its own, deferring that policy choice to the state legislature instead.
Two real, narrow exceptions
Contributory negligence doesn't always end a claim. See our full guide to how fault is actually assigned in Virginia for the last clear chance doctrine and the willful/wanton negligence exception — two genuinely important paths back to recovery even when the plaintiff shares some fault.