Joint and several liability is a legal doctrine that applies when multiple people or companies are responsible for damaging or harming someone.
Each person or entity who is responsible for causing harm is called a tortfeasor. A plaintiff can sue tortfeasors to recover compensation for losses. Under joint and several liability rules, any tortfeasor can be responsible for providing up to 100% of the plaintiff’s compensation regardless of what portion of responsibility that tortfeasor bears.
If a tortfeasor does end up paying more than their fair share of the plaintiff’s damages, they can seek contribution from other co-defendants responsible for causing harm. However, it is possible that the other defendants won’t have money to pay up.
Joint and several liability was originally very widespread under common law (laws made by judges in court cases). The theory was that a tortfeasor should bear financial responsibility if the other co-defendants don’t have the funds to pay damages, rather than the innocent victim suffering uncompensated losses.
However, many states have moved away from joint and several liability. Instead, they follow the legal doctrine of pure several liability which makes each tortfeasor responsible only for covering their own share of the damages.
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