Del. P.J.I. Civ. § 5.12

COMPARATIVE NEGLIGENCE - SPECIAL VERDICT FORM

[Defendant’s name] alleges that [plaintiff’s name]’s negligence proximately

caused the accident. Negligence is negligence no matter who commits it. When the

plaintiff is negligent, we call it contributory negligence. Under Delaware law, a

plaintiff’s contributory negligence does not mean that the plaintiff cannot recover

damages from the defendant as long as the plaintiff’s negligence was no greater than

the defendant’s negligence. Instead of preventing a recovery, Delaware law reduces

the plaintiff’s recovery in proportion to the plaintiff’s negligence.

If you find plaintiff’s contributory negligence was a proximate cause of the

[accident / injury], you must determine the degree of that negligence, expressed as

a percentage, attributable to [plaintiff’s name]. Similarly, if you find that one, or

more than one, defendant was negligent, you must determine their relative degrees

of fault. Using 100% as the total combined negligence of the parties, you must

determine what percentage of negligence is attributable to [plaintiff’s name / co-defendants]. I will furnish you with a special-verdict form for this purpose. If you

find that [plaintiff’s name]’s negligence is no more than half the total negligence,

that is, 50% or less, I will reduce the total amount of [plaintiff’s name]’s damages

by the percentage of [his/her] comparative negligence. If you find that [plaintiff’s

name]’s negligence is more than half, that is, more than 50% of the total negligence,

[plaintiff’s name] may not recover any damages.