A genuinely low 25% threshold
Under W. Va. Code § 55-7-13c, a defendant found 25% or more at fault can be held jointly and severally liable for the plaintiff's total damages — meaning that single defendant could be on the hook for the full judgment, not just their own share. This 25% figure is notably lower than most other states use for this kind of threshold, making it genuinely easier to trigger joint and several liability in West Virginia than in many other jurisdictions.
What happens below that line
A defendant found under 25% at fault is generally liable only severally — responsible solely for their own proportional share of the damages, not a co-defendant's share as well.
Four specific exceptions, regardless of the percentage
Beyond the 25% threshold itself, West Virginia law identifies four specific situations where joint and several liability applies no matter what percentage of fault a defendant actually bears: a conscious conspiracy between two or more defendants who deliberately pursue a common plan to commit a tortious act, conduct involving alcohol or drug-influenced driving, criminal conduct, and the alleged disposal of hazardous waste.
A real mechanism for uncollectible judgments
If a plaintiff is unable to collect from a liable defendant despite good-faith efforts, the plaintiff may, within one year of the judgment becoming final, ask the court to reallocate that uncollectible amount among the other liable parties. This reallocation has real limits built in: a court may not reallocate to any defendant an amount greater than that defendant's own percentage of fault multiplied by the uncollectible total, and there's no reallocation at all against a defendant whose fault is equal to or less than the plaintiff's own fault.
Nonparties can be assigned fault too
West Virginia's framework also allows the fact-finder to allocate fault to people who aren't actually parties to the lawsuit — though a federal court sitting in West Virginia has held that a specific state-law restriction on identifying nonparties discovered more than 180 days after a defendant was served conflicts with the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and so doesn't apply in federal court even though it does in West Virginia's own state courts.
Why these layers genuinely matter
Because West Virginia's 25% threshold is genuinely lower than most states, and because specific carve-outs and a real reallocation mechanism sit alongside it, how liability actually gets divided among multiple defendants in a West Virginia claim can look quite different from the simpler several-only rule a first read of the statute might suggest.