§ 25-21,185.07.Civil actions to which contributory negligence is a defense; sections applicable.

Section 25-21,185.07 marks the starting line for Nebraska’s modern comparative negligence framework. It applies sections 25-21,185.07 through 25-21,185.12 to all civil actions to which contributory negligence may, under the law, be a defense, so long as the action accrued on or after February 8, 1992, and seeks damages for injury to or death of a person or harm to property. The theory of liability behind the claim does not matter; whether it sounds in negligence, strict liability, or something else, the action falls inside this framework if contributory negligence could be a defense to it.

Actions that accrued before that February 1992 date stay outside this newer scheme. Those earlier cases continue to be governed by the law in effect immediately before the date, which for many claims means the slight-gross comparison rule described in section 25-21,185.

The section closes with a specific instruction about wrongful death. Nothing in sections 25-21,185.07 through 25-21,185.12 limits a wrongful death claim brought under sections 30-809 and 30-810, but those claims are still subject to this same set of comparative negligence sections. In other words, wrongful death actions are not carved out of the comparative fault analysis; they are folded into it.