In the case I mentioned two days ago, it's fairly straightforward to see that if Darla ran her red light, then she caused an accident. However, sometimes it isn't all that easy.
The Plaintiff has to show in any negligence case that whatever happened, it acted as the proximate cause of the resulting damages. There must be a fairly clear link between the breach of duty (crash) and the damages (injuries and auto damage). For example, if I don't write my blog because I am on vacation and don't get to a computer that day, the vacation would be the proximate cause of that day's lack of blogging. The work I did six months ago, for which I was paid, which money I saved, which combined with the interest I earned helped to pay for the trip and the gas I used to drive to the airport? Not so much a proximate cause. There just isn't a link there.
Where is the exact borderline where a link becomes too weak? Sorry, there's no way to state that precisely, because if there were most of us lawyers would be out of a job.
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About Me
- Carl Archer
- I am an elder law attorney with my own solo practice. I'm located in central New Jersey but I make house calls. I am in the business of setting the elderly and their caregivers at ease, by making sure they have high-quality health care they can afford, and governmental benefits they're entitled to.