Apportionment refers to the act of dividing or alloting something according to a plan. For example, apportionment may refer to the proportional distribution of the number of members of the U.S. House of Representatives on the basis of the population of each state. Apportionment often means not division, but distribution, or the distribution of one subject in proportion to another previously distributed.
In a court case, the judge may apportion liablility among defendants according to a percentage of fault assigned to each defendant. The amount of the total damages awarded which is paid by each defendant then corresponds to the percent of liability assigned to that defendant.
