Has negligence law gone overboard?

In what way? In the awards given? Or in finding conduct negligent?

I lived a long time in a country where there is a totally different law of negligence, where personal responsibility is stressed much more than here. I had some difficulties adjusting to American thinking again. But I understand its merits.

On a whole I think the danger is great that we attempt to hold people responsible for negligence whose fault, if any, is smaller than our own, because we shy responsibility for our own conduct. The funny thing is, that historically we had actually the opposite kind of thinking. English common law knew the doctrine of contributory negligence, where a plaintiff was totally barred from recovery for others' negligent conduct when any kind of negligence on his part contributed to the harm.

Then our courts and legislatures abolished that and started the trend I mentioned above.