Causation is one of the critical elements of a personal injury claim. In fact, most claims are worthless unless you can prove causation. Proving causation might seem like a simple matter, and it often is. It can be a tough nut to crack, however, without the assistance of an experienced California personal injury lawyer.
Causation in a Negligence Case
Negligence is the most common basis for a personal injury claim. When you allege negligence you are claiming that the defendant injured you through careless behavior. Most car accident claims, for example, trace their roots to negligence. To prove negligence liability, you must prove that:
- The defendant owed you a legal duty of care (to obey traffic laws, for example);
- The defendant breached their duty of care (by running a red light, for example);
- You suffered a personal injury (a broken leg, for example); and
- The defendant’s breach of duty caused your injury.
Causation provides the link between the defendant’s misconduct (running a red light) and your injury (a broken leg.)
The Two Forms of Causation
California, like other states, recognizes two forms of legal causation and expects you to prove both of them. These two forms of legal causation are actual cause and proximate cause.
Actual Cause
When you assert that X was the actual cause of Y, you are asserting that if X hadn’t happened, Y wouldn’t have happened either. This is known as the “but for” test – but for X, you would not have occurred.
For example, if the defendant hadn’t failed to erect a Wet Floor sign, the plaintiff wouldn’t have fallen and broken their hip.
Proximate Cause
The question in proximate cause is whether the causal link between cause and effect was close enough to justify imposing liability on the defendant. The idea is that a freak accident should not result in liability even if the defendant was negligent.
The classic case illustrating proximate cause is Palsgraf v. Long Island RR. In that case, railroad employees pushed a passenger onto a departing train, causing him to drop his briefcase. The briefcase, containing fireworks, exploded and injured a woman standing some distance away. The woman sued the railroad but lost due to failure to establish proximate cause.
Common Examples of Causation
Sometimes, it’s not easy to determine who or what caused an injury. Following are some examples of causation “close calls”:
- The defendant knocks out the victim in a bar fight, causing a concussion. A week later, the victim dies from a minor head injury sustained in a subsequent car accident, due to “second impact syndrome.” The man’s wife files a wrongful death lawsuit against the bar for negligent security.
- A community suffers high cancer rates many years after exposure to toxic chemicals leaked by a local factory. It might be difficult to trace an individual case of cancer to exposure to toxic chemicals.
- Extraordinarily high winds cause a dead tree to collapse on a passerby. So what was the cause of the injury, poor tree maintenance or high winds?
- A customer dies from an allergic reaction to peanuts despite informing the restaurant of their allergy.
- Driver X hits Driver Y after swerving to avoid an inconspicuously marked construction zone.
- A spectator at a baseball game is hit and injured by a foul ball after the stadium owner neglected to provide protective netting.
Thousands more examples are possible, and you can almost always find a previous case involving a scenario similar to the one you are contesting.
Evidence of Causation
The following items are frequently used to prove causation:
- Medical records from the hospital.
- The testimony of expert witnesses.
- Eyewitness accounts of the accident.
- Accident reports, including auto accident police reports. You typically cannot use these documents in court. You can, however, use them in settlement negotiations because they help establish the probable testimony of the person who wrote the report.
The facts of the case will ultimately determine all of the available sources of evidence.
Negotiations
Negotiating parties typically resolve their disputes based on how they think a court would react if their case went to trial. The problem with causation is that different courts can see the same scenario in different ways. When causation is a prominent issue, your lawyer’s negotiating skills are paramount.
Related Concept: Comparative Negligence
Under California’s comparative negligence scheme, a court will decide each party’s percentage of fault for the accident and deduct the equivalent percentage from each party’s damages. The concepts of “fault” and “causation” can be difficult to tease apart.
In a nutshell, comparative fault focuses on the wrongfulness of the defendant’s conduct, while causation focuses on the link between the defendant’s misconduct and the injury.
You’ll Probably Need a Hermosa Beach Personal Injury Lawyer if Causation Is in Doubt
Suppose a drunken customer breaks their leg after slipping and falling on an unmarked wet floor at a department store. Is the issue comparative fault, causation, or both? You’ll probably need a lawyer to answer this question.
Fortunately, personal injury lawyers do not charge legal fees by the hour. They work on a contingency fee arrangement, which means you only pay if you win money. That could be a good reason to schedule a free initial consultation at (424) 722-3209 with a Hermosa Beach personal injury lawyer.