Liability Insurance and Negligence Law
The elements
Negligence requires duty, breach, actual cause, proximate cause, and damages. Duty is defined by the relationship: landowners owe the highest care to invitees, warning of known dangers to licensees, and only avoidance of willful harm to trespassers (with special rules for child trespassers). Negligence per se borrows a statute's standard; res ipsa loquitur permits an inference of negligence when the instrumentality was under exclusive control and the event would not ordinarily occur without negligence. Strict liability applies to abnormally dangerous activity, product defects, and - in Connecticut - dog bites under the state's strict-liability statute, subject to trespasser and provocation exceptions.
Comparative fault in Connecticut
Connecticut uses modified comparative fault. The plaintiff's recovery is reduced by its own percentage of negligence, and the plaintiff is barred entirely if its negligence is greater than the defendants' combined negligence (a 51%-plus bar). Joint and several liability is limited; defendants generally pay their proportionate share, with narrow exceptions.
Damages split into economic (medical, wage loss) and noneconomic (pain and suffering). The collateral source rule generally keeps the plaintiff's insurance benefits out of the damages calculation. Connecticut's limitations period is generally two years for personal injury and three years for property damage, with shorter notice deadlines (often 90 days) for claims against municipalities.
Worked example
Damages total $100,000; the jury finds the plaintiff 30% at fault and the defendant 70%. Recovery = $100,000 × 70% = $70,000. Had the plaintiff been found 60% at fault, recovery would be zero under the 51% bar.
Rule of thumb: in any liability claim, fix the comparative-fault allocation before negotiating value - it is a multiplier, not a footnote.