Examples of Proximate Cause in a Personal Injury Case

October 10, 2024 | Sagi Shaked | Blog

Causation is the link between the defendant’s behavior (a negligent act, for example) and the consequences that the plaintiff suffered (perhaps a broken leg). To win your personal injury claim, you must prove that somebody caused your injury. Actual causation alone is not enough, however. You must also establish proximate cause. 

Background: The Basic Elements of a Negligence Claim

Negligence is the most common basis for a personal injury claim. To establish liability for negligence, you need to prove the following four elements:

• Duty of care: The defendant owed you a duty of care. This is almost always the case.
• Breach of duty: The defendant failed to meet the demands of their duty of care to you. Maybe they were driving the wrong way on a one-way street, for example. Breach of duty equals negligence.
• Causation: The defendant’s negligence was the cause of your damages. That means both actual cause and proximate cause (see below).
• Damages: The plaintiff suffered damages that money can remedy. Typically, this means some sort of physical injury. Once you prove physical injury, you can add in claims for emotional distress, pain and suffering, etc.

You need all four of these elements, including causation, to win a personal injury claim.

The Two Types of Causation

To win a personal injury claim, you have to prove both types of causation—actual cause and proximate cause. 

What is Actual Cause?

Actual cause, also known as the “but-for” cause, is an essential element in establishing liability in a personal injury case. It involves examining whether the plaintiff’s injury would have occurred but for the defendant’s specific act or omission. In other words, you must be able to say with confidence that, had the at-fault party not acted as they did (or failed to act as they should have), the injury would not have happened. If you can make this connection and back it up with evidence, you’ve established actual cause.

Actual cause is about drawing a direct link between the defendant’s actions and the harm suffered by the plaintiff. By proving that the injury would not have occurred without the defendant’s specific actions, actual cause is established as the foundation of causation in a legal claim. However, proving actual cause alone is not enough. To hold the defendant liable, you must also establish proximate cause. 

What is Proximate Cause?

Proximate cause, or proximate causation, is a link between a wrongdoer’s behavior and the victim’s damages that is direct enough to justly hold the defendant liable for the claim. “Proximate” means something like “near,” and it defines how attenuated a claim can be and still result in liability for the defendant. 

Proximate cause doesn’t even become an issue unless you can establish actual cause because there is no proximate cause without actual cause. Typically, you establish proximate cause by showing that, given the defendant’s actions, the harm that the plaintiff suffered was a foreseeable consequence. This requirement prevents the legal system from holding defendants liable for unforeseeable freak accidents. 

Examples of Proximate Cause

Following are some examples that can help distinguish between actual cause and proximate cause:

• A driver on I-95 rear-ends a truck while checking his cell phone messages. This causes a ten-car chain reaction pileup. It’s obvious that the driver’s misconduct of checking text messages while driving was the proximate cause of the first accident. The tenth driver, however, might have trouble establishing that the first driver’s negligence was the proximate cause of the tenth driver’s accident.
• The defendant leaves their gate open, and their dog escapes. The dog chases a pedestrian into the street, where a car hits them. Although proximate cause is not 100% clear, the pedestrian can probably win their claim against the dog owner based on proximate cause.
• During a fireworks display, a Roman candle misfires. It soars past the crowd into a major highway and causes a highway accident. Because the accident happened in such an unexpected way, a plaintiff injured in the accident may or may not be able to establish proximate cause.
• A golfer’s errant swing causes the golf ball to fly over the fence of a Miami golf course and hit a passing pedestrian. The pedestrian sues for personal injury. The golfer’s errant swing, although the actual cause of the pedestrian’s injury, might not be the proximate cause. It depends on whether it was foreseeable that the golf ball would be able to make it over the fence.

You can see from the foregoing list that, in many cases, the existence or non-existence of proximate cause is a judgment call that could go either way.

A Miami Lawyer Can Help You Work Out the Intricacies of Proximate Cause

As you can see from the foregoing examples, determining proximate cause can be straightforward or subtle. Either way, it’s best to seek the services of a Florida personal injury lawyer for a substantial claim. Don’t worry that you can’t afford a lawyer. Most personal injury lawyers won’t charge you a dime unless they win your case. Contact Shaked Law Personal Injury Lawyers today to schedule a free consultation. 

Contact Our Personal Injury Law Firm in Miami, FL

If you’ve been injured in an accident in Miami, FL and need legal help, contact our Miami personal injury lawyers at Shaked Law Personal Injury Lawyers to schedule a free consultation.

Shaked Law Personal Injury Lawyers
20900 NE 30th Ave Suite 715
Aventura, FL 33180
(305) 937-0191