Motorcycle accidents rarely come with simple answers about who caused what. Utah uses something called modified comparative fault, which basically means multiple people can share the blame for a crash. And that shared blame? It directly affects whether you can collect compensation and how much you’ll walk away with. Here’s what matters. You can still go after damages even if you’re partly at fault. But there’s a major exception. If a court or insurance company decides you’re 50% or more responsible, you can’t recover a single dollar. Zero. This makes the fight over fault percentages absolutely vital to your case.

How Utah’s 50% Rule Works

The rule’s pretty straightforward until you dig into the math. As long as you’re below 50% at fault, you can still recover something. Your total compensation just gets reduced by whatever percentage of fault gets assigned to you. Say your damages add up to $100,000. You’re found 20% at fault. You’ll get $80,000. At 30% fault? That drops to $70,000. The numbers shrink as your fault percentage climbs. Even at 49% fault, you’d still collect $51,000. But hit that 50% mark, and everything disappears. Utah’s approach sits in the middle. Some states let you recover damages even if you’re 99% at fault. Others won’t give you anything if you contributed even 1% to the accident. We’re somewhere between those extremes, which means the battle over fault percentages can make or break your entire claim.

Common Scenarios That Affect Fault In Motorcycle Cases

Insurance companies love pinning blame on motorcyclists. They’ll lean hard on stereotypes about reckless riders or motorcycles being impossible to see. At Rasmussen & Miner, we’ve watched these tactics play out more times than we can count.

Several things consistently pop up when fault gets divvied up:

  • Whether you were speeding or riding aggressively when the crash happened
  • If you signaled properly or checked your blind spots
  • Where you positioned yourself in the lane, and whether other drivers could see you
  • Your protective gear choices, including helmet use
  • Road conditions and whether you adjusted your riding to match them

A driver might swear you were flying through an intersection, even though they’re the one who failed to yield. Or they’ll claim you were weaving between lanes in a way that made you invisible to them. These arguments aren’t accidents. They’re designed to push your fault percentage over 50% so the insurance company pays nothing.

Why Insurance Companies Focus On Comparative Fault

Every percentage point of fault an adjuster can stick on you means less money out of their pocket. They’ll comb through police reports, hunt down witnesses, and analyze every photo from the scene looking for something, anything, that suggests you contributed to what happened. Sometimes, they’ll point to your lack of a helmet as proof that you were negligent. Never mind that Utah doesn’t require helmets for riders over 21. They might argue that your aftermarket exhaust or custom modifications somehow caused the crash. In more serious cases, they’ll hire their own accident reconstruction experts to build an entire case around shared fault. This is exactly why working with a Salt Lake City motorcycle accident lawyer makes such a difference. We’re gathering our own evidence, talking to witnesses who actually saw what happened, and bringing in experts who can tear apart these fault-shifting games.

Proving The Other Driver’s Greater Fault

Winning under comparative fault rules means proving the other driver bears most of the responsibility. That takes solid evidence from day one. Traffic cameras capture what actually happened. So do dashcams and cell phone videos from bystanders. Photos of skid marks, debris patterns, and vehicle damage all tell a story. Witnesses who saw the whole thing can contradict whatever version the other driver is selling. If someone was texting, their phone records prove it. Police reports that document traffic violations carry weight, too. The severity and location of what you suffered can reveal how the collision unfolded. Road rash on specific body parts, the angle of broken bones, and the type of head trauma you sustained. These details paint a picture of fault that’s hard to dispute.

How Fault Determinations Happen

Nobody makes a snap decision about fault percentages and calls it a day. The process involves back-and-forth negotiation, serious investigation, and sometimes a full trial.

Settlement talks start with both sides presenting their evidence. Your Salt Lake City motorcycle accident lawyer argues for the lowest fault percentage possible based on everything we’ve found. The insurance company pushes for higher numbers. It’s a negotiation, and like any negotiation, leverage matters.

Insurance companies use sophisticated strategies to shift blame away from their drivers and onto you. Fighting back takes real experience with Utah law and motorcycle accident cases specifically. We investigate every aspect of your crash. We challenge bogus fault assessments. We work to protect what you’re actually entitled to receive after someone else’s carelessness put you in the hospital. Don’t let an insurance adjuster’s tactics reduce what you deserve. Contact us to discuss your case and find out what fault percentage you might be facing. The conversation costs nothing, but the difference it makes can be substantial.