Originally Posted by unkchunk
Expatriot, if he accepts the 60% offer for damages to his bicycle and cashes the check, does that mean he agrees to the 60/40 senario and could be held to pay for 40% of the SUV's damages later on?
It's a state-by-state thing, different states have different "theories of negligence." Here is an article written by a lawyer that explains it:
http://www.mwl-law.com/chart.htm
Basically, in some states you have to be 100% at fault to be liable. In other states, your liability is equal to your portion of the fault. In some of those states, you can't be liable if you are less than 50% (or 51%) at fault.
Texas is "Modified Comparative Fault -- 51 Percent Bar" which means that you can't be held liable if you are less than 51% at fault, so in this case there is no liability to the cyclist of being found 40% at fault.