Bill > HB145

This bill amends Mississippi's existing law on joint tortfeasors (multiple parties who may share responsibility for causing harm) by adding new requirements for how defendants must handle fault allocation in civil lawsuits. Specifically, defendants will now be required to identify in their legal answer (initial response) to a complaint any other parties they believe should share fault for the alleged harm. If a defendant fails to identify a potential joint tortfeasor, they will lose the right to allocate any fault to that party. The bill also stipulates that if a defendant wants to assign fault to a person or entity not already part of the lawsuit, they must bring that party into the legal action, and the court must allow such an addition. The trier of fact (typically a jury) will continue to determine the percentage of fault for each party, and fault cannot be reassigned from an immune or legally limited tortfeasor to another defendant. This change aims to make fault allocation more transparent and precise in civil litigation, ensuring that all potentially responsible parties are identified early in the legal process. The bill will take effect on July 1, 2025.

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https://billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/2025/pdf/history/HB/HB0145.xml