In a personal injury case, an injured plaintiff must prove the defendant’s actions actually and proximately caused the plaintiff’s harm. A party’s actions can proximately cause an injury when the actions represent a natural, continuous sequence of events, uninterrupted by any unforeseeable intervening cause, and constitute a legally sufficient cause of the injury. Still, the injury would not have occurred from those actions. Establishing proximate cause also requires showing that the party should have reasonably foreseenthat their actions could harm the injured party.
In other words, proximate cause limits liability to harms that are closely connected to the defendant’s conduct, rather than remote or highly unpredictable consequences.
Many personal injury cases turn on the issue of whether a defendant’s conduct proximately caused the plaintiff’s injury. Understanding proximate causes can prepare you for what to expect in a personal injury lawsuit.
What Is the Difference Between Proximate Cause and Actual Cause?
Successful personal injury claims require establishing an injury’s actual and proximate cause. A party’s actions may represent the actual cause of an injury when it would not have occurred but for those actions. However, proximate cause — also called legal cause — requires a party’s actions to constitute the most direct and legally responsible cause of an outcome, making it fair under the law to hold that party liable.
Proximate cause also depends on the foreseeability of the outcome of a party’s actions. A party’s actions can meet the foreseeability requirement if the party should have reasonably expected that harm could occur due to their actions. Courts may also evaluate whether the defendant’s conduct was a “substantial factor” in bringing about the injury, meaning the conduct was significant rather than remote or trivial.
So, proximate cause requires the existence of an actual cause. However, a party’s negligence must represent the actual and proximate cause of a person’s injuries for the party to bear liability for the person’s harm and loss. When a party’s conduct represents an actual cause of injury but not the proximate cause, that party may not bear liability for the injured person’s losses.
How Does Proximate Cause Factor Into a Personal Injury Case?
Determining proximate cause means determining the party or parties bear legal responsibility for an injured person’s harm and losses. Sometimes, a party’s conduct may constitute an actual cause of an accident while not qualifying as a proximate cause.
For example, suppose a car driver hits a pedestrian, but the pedestrian suffers non-fatal injuries. While in an ambulance on the way to the hospital, a truck driver hits the ambulance and kills the pedestrian. In that case, the proximate cause may play a critical role in determining each driver’s liability for the pedestrian’s death. The car driver’s negligence may be an actual cause of the pedestrian’s death because it would not have occurred, but the car driver injured the pedestrian and put them into an ambulance that a truck hit.
However, a jury may find that the car driver’s negligence did not constitute a proximate cause of the pedestrian’s death as the car driver could not have reasonably foreseen that, by driving negligently and causing non-fatal injuries to a pedestrian, the pedestrian would subsequently die when a truck hit their ambulance and inflicted fatal injuries. Instead, the truck driver’s negligence may be the proximate cause of the pedestrian’s death, as the truck driver could reasonably foresee that hitting another vehicle could kill its occupants.
How Do You Determine Proximate Cause in a Personal Injury Claim?
Determining the proximate cause of a personal injury claim involves several steps in analyzing the facts of the case. First, an injured plaintiff must establish that their injuries would not have occurred but for the defendant’s conduct. So, the defendant’s conduct constitutes an actual cause of the plaintiff’s injuries.
To establish proximate cause, the plaintiff must demonstrate how the defendant’s conduct represents a natural sequence of events culminating in the plaintiff’s injury and how the defendant should have foreseen that their conduct could result in the plaintiff’s injury. Determining whether a defendant should have foreseen that their conduct could result in the plaintiff’s injury depends on whether another reasonable, careful person in the defendant’s position would have foreseen the outcome of their conduct.
A plaintiff may also need to prove that no other intervening event broke the causal link between the defendant’s actions and the plaintiff’s injury. An intervening cause can relieve a party of liability for an injury when the event occurs between the defendant’s action and the plaintiff’s injury, and the defendant would not have reasonably foreseen or expected the intervening event to occur. When the intervening event is unforeseeable and extraordinary, courts may consider it a superseding cause that breaks the chain of proximate causation.
Courts typically analyze proximate cause using several guiding principles, including:
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Foreseeability: Whether a reasonable person could have anticipated that the conduct might result in harm.
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Substantial Factor Test: Whether the defendant’s conduct was a significant factor in producing the injury.
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Direct Chain of Events: Whether the injury followed in a natural sequence without a superseding, unforeseeable event breaking the chain of causation.
A personal injury plaintiff must present sufficient evidence to establish that a defendant’s negligence proximately caused the plaintiff’s injuries. Examples of evidence that courts or juries use to determine proximate cause in personal injury cases include the following:
- Police reports
- Accident/incident reports
- Accident scene photos and videos
- Surveillance camera footage
- Eyewitness statements
- Maintenance records
- Staffing records
- Medical records
- Expert accident reconstruction reports and testimony.
Does Colorado Have a Time Limit for Personal Injury Claims?
Under Colorado’s statute of limitations for personal injury claims, an accident victim typically has two years after getting hurt to file a lawsuit against the party or parties responsible for their injuries or losses. However, when bringing a personal injury claim against the state government in Colorado, an accident victim must send a written notice of their personal injury claim to the attorney general’s office within 182 days of the accident.
Because Colorado has strict time limits for filing personal injury claims, you can best protect your rights and options after an accident by speaking with a personal injury attorney as soon as possible. Investigating a personal injury claim to identify the party whose negligence actually and proximately caused the accident takes time. Filing your personal injury claim after the applicable time limits could endanger your right to hold liable parties accountable for your harm and loss.
Contact a Colorado Personal Injury Lawyer
If you’ve been hurt in an accident due to another party’s actions, you need experienced legal advocacy to prove that the other party’s negligence directly and proximately caused your harm and loss. Our legal team has the legal knowledge and proven track record to help you with your case. Contact our law firm using (303) 466-3529 or through our online form today for a free, no-obligation consultation with a knowledgeable Colorado personal injury lawyer to discuss your legal options for pursuing maximum compensation for your injuries and losses.
