Not every crash is caused by a single person. Sometimes two drivers run a red light at the same time. Sometimes a trucking company fails to maintain its vehicle while the driver behind the wheel is also violating federal hours-of-service rules. When more than one party is at fault, figuring out who pays for your injuries gets more complicated.
In Virginia, if your injury was caused by multiple parties, a legal doctrine called joint and several liability allows you to hold any one of those parties responsible for the full amount of your damages.
How Joint and Several Liability Works Under Virginia Law
Under Virginia Code Section 8.01-443, when a court enters a judgment against multiple defendants who caused the same injury, each one of them can be held liable for the entire judgment amount. It does not matter how much or how little fault belongs to each defendant individually. If a jury awards you $500,000 and two defendants are found liable, you can collect that full amount from either one of them.
This comes up more often than people realize. A common scenario is an employee who causes a crash while on the job. The employee may not have any real assets to pay a judgment. But if the employer is also found liable, perhaps for negligent hiring or inadequate training, joint and several liability means the employer can be required to pay the full award. You do not have to chase down each defendant for their individual share. You go after whoever can actually pay.
The Right of Contribution Between Defendants
Virginia does give defendants the ability to seek contribution from each other after a judgment is paid. Under Virginia Code Section 8.01-34, a defendant who pays more than their fair share can turn around and sue the other defendants for reimbursement, as long as the underlying wrong was based on negligence and did not involve intentional misconduct.
That part of the process is between the defendants. It does not reduce your recovery. Once the judgment is entered, you are entitled to collect the full amount regardless of how the defendants sort things out among themselves.
Why Virginia's "Pure" Approach Matters for Your Claim
Not every state treats joint and several liability the same way. Some states limit it to certain types of damages, such as medical bills and lost wages, while applying different rules to pain and suffering. Others have moved toward systems where each defendant is only responsible for their proportional share of fault.
Virginia follows what is known as pure joint and several liability. That means every liable defendant is on the hook for the whole judgment. There is no proportional allocation at the verdict stage. This gives injured people a real advantage, especially in cases where one defendant has a better financial ability to pay and the other does not.
Here are some common multi-party accident scenarios where this rule applies:
- A distracted driver rear-ends you into the car ahead, and both drivers share fault
- A defective auto part fails during a crash caused by another driver
- A commercial truck driver causes a wreck and the trucking company also violated safety regulations
- A property owner fails to maintain a road or parking lot, contributing to a collision caused by another motorist
- An employer sends an employee out in an unsafe vehicle that causes injuries
In all of these situations, a Virginia Beach car accident lawyer can identify every potentially liable party and pursue the one most capable of satisfying a judgment.
How This Affects Settlements
Joint and several liability does not just matter at trial. It shapes the entire settlement process. When multiple defendants are involved, one of them may want to settle early while the others want to fight. Virginia Code Section 8.01-35.1 addresses this directly. If one defendant settles and is released from the case, that settlement does not automatically let the remaining defendants off the hook. However, the remaining defendants do receive a credit equal to the settlement amount, which reduces whatever judgment eventually comes in.
This matters because it means settling with one defendant does not destroy your claim against the others. It also creates strategic pressure on the remaining defendants. Once they see that a co-defendant has already paid, they know a jury could hold them responsible for the balance, and that tends to move settlement discussions forward.
How you sequence settlements, which defendant you press hardest, when you agree to mediation and when you push for trial are all factors that need to be considered. A Virginia Beach car accident lawyer who has handled multi-defendant cases before will know how to position you for the best possible outcome.
Why This Case Needs an Attorney
Virginia's contributory negligence rule makes multi-party claims even more complicated. If the defense can pin any fault on you, even a fraction, your entire claim could be barred. That is a much bigger risk when there are multiple defendants pointing fingers at each other, and often at you, trying to shift blame.
At Shapiro, Washburn & Sharp, our attorneys have handled multi-defendant injury cases throughout Virginia for decades. We’ve been representing injured people since 1985, handling car accidents, trucking collisions, medical malpractice, and other serious injury cases involving multiple liable parties every day.
If you were injured in an accident involving more than one at-fault party, contact the Virginia Beach car accident lawyers at Shapiro, Washburn & Sharp to discuss your case. The firm has recovered more than $100 million in settlements and verdicts for our clients. Call 833-997-1774 for a free consultation. Shapiro, Washburn & Sharp has offices in Virginia Beach, Portsmouth, Suffolk, Hampton, Norfolk, and Chesapeake.
