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You must bring an action against every person who causes your injury. The
negligence of two drivers, for example, may have produced a collision in which you were
injured. According to traditional legal principles, each one could be held 100 percent
liable to you. In a more recent legal trend, however, many jurisdictions have abolished
such "joint and several" liability and each defendant, known legally as a "joint tortfeasor,"
becomes responsible for only that portion of the harm he or she caused. This is the rule of
comparative negligence, which exists in most states. (See the section titled "Automobile
Accidents" for more on comparative negligence.)