§ 98A.005.Joint and Several Liability

A joint and several liability provision in the same terms as the trafficking chapter's.

A person who engages in conduct described by the liability section and is found liable under this chapter or other law for any amount of damages arising from that conduct is jointly and severally liable with any other defendant for the entire amount.

This displaces the proportionate responsibility regime, under which each defendant would answer only for its own percentage unless found more than 50 percent responsible.

The reason is the same as in the trafficking chapter. Responsibility for compelled prostitution is distributed — the person compelling, those promoting, those advertising — and apportioning percentages would leave a victim collecting fragments from parties who are frequently unidentified or without assets.

The advertiser route makes this particularly consequential. A defendant who purchased an advertisement it should have known constituted promotion of prostitution is liable for the entire damages arising from the compelled prostitution, not for a share reflecting its role.

"Under this chapter or other law" extends the joint liability to a person who engaged in the described conduct and is held liable on any theory for damages arising from it.

Read with the cumulative provision, a claimant who cannot use the trafficking chapter loses nothing on this point — both regimes impose entire liability.