The more common modified comparative threshold
Among the US states that use some form of modified comparative negligence, a majority use the more forgiving 51% threshold — recovery is barred only once the claimant's fault actually exceeds the defendant's. A smaller group of about 11 states uses a stricter 50% version instead.
The 21 states using a 51% bar
Wyoming's peer group under this more common threshold is: Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana (for accidents from 2026 onward), Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Vermont, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
A genuinely distinctive stance on defendant liability
Several states within this group still impose some form of joint and several liability once a given defendant's fault crosses a certain threshold — sometimes a notably low one. Wyoming takes a different, genuinely more protective approach toward defendants: liability stays several only across the board, with no threshold at which it converts to joint and several.
What this means when a defendant can't pay
This distinction matters most when a defendant turns out to be judgment-proof or otherwise unable to pay their share. In many other states in this group, a mechanism exists to shift at least part of that uncollectible amount onto a co-defendant. Wyoming has no such mechanism — a plaintiff facing an uncollectible defendant in Wyoming may simply be unable to recover that portion of the judgment at all.
Why this matters in a disputed, multi-defendant claim
Because none of these 21 states bars recovery at an even 50/50 split, a disputed fault percentage near the midpoint still results in meaningful recovery across the group — but how that recovery actually gets collected, especially with multiple defendants of varying solvency, can look quite different in Wyoming than it does in some of its peers. See our full comparison of how Wyoming's rule fits among all four fault systems for the complete picture.