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Discuss the concepts of contributory negligence and comparative negligence.

Contributory negligence is a defense that can be used by a defendant to avoid liability. Most states have discarded this concept; however, if allowed, even if the plaintiff were one percent responsible for an accident, she cannot recover from the defendant. Comparative negligence is used to pro rate each party's fault in a negligence case. So, if the plaintiff is 50 percent or less responsible, she is allowed to collect relative to her degree of fault. Thus, if the plaintiff were 30 percent responsible for her accident and sustained 100,000 worth of injuries, she could recover 70,000 (70 percent) from the defendant.