Causation in Personal Injury

In personal injury cases, the burden of proof rests on the Plaintiff to prove, on the balance of probabilities, that the Defendant was negligent. In the instance of the Defendant, this is perhaps more difficult to defend against as the Plaintiff need only secure a 51% probability in his favour that the Defendant was negligent. To exemplify the successfulness of these cases in favour of the Plaintiff, if you juxtapose a civil action with a criminal action, the prosecution must prove that the Defendant is guilty beyond reasonable doubt. The extent of this heightens the threshold required in criminal cases as opposed to civil actions.

The ‘but for’ test is a legal principle that is the start point in establishing whether there is causation for a legal action. In order for there to have been causation, the Plaintiff must be able to conclude that the damage he/she sustained would not have occurred ‘but for’ the Defendant’s negligence. There are instances, however, that the Defendant may be able to prove that he was not the sole contributor to damage occurring and be able to demonstrate negligence on behalf of the Plaintiff, this is known as contributory negligence (see our blog on this).
The Latin maxim, Novus Actus Interveniens, when translated can be interpreted to mean, ‘a new intervening act.’ The effect of the latter maxim is that a new intervening act will break the chain of causation, meaning that from a Defendant’s act or omission which purportedly directly resulted in the damage, there was some other act that has nullified the Defendant’s original act. The chain of causation implicitly relies on there being a direct causal link between the actions of the Defendant to the damage sustained. Whereas, if along this hypothetical chain some other act or omission interrupts it, then the burden of proof becomes increasingly difficult and the Defendant may not be held accountable. However, matters such as this are dealt with everyday during practice and usually when one Defendant is no longer held accountable; there are enough grounds for a new Defendant to be found.
A point to note, which can cause repudiation between parties when pursuing a civil action, is the scope of a Defendant’s duty. Borrowing from the English case of Caparo Industries plc v Dickman [1990] 2 AC 605, Lord Bridge promulgated, ‘It is always necessary to determine the scope of the duty by reference to the kind of damage from which A must take care to save B harmless.’ Therefore, if there has been an act or omission but the scope of the duty owed by the Defendant to the Plaintiff was so far removed then the Court may decide that there is no causation.

0
Feed

Leave a comment

The following cookies load by default:

Strictly necessary cookies
These cookies are essential for visitors to be able to browse the website and use its features. None of this information can be used to identify visitors as all data is anonymized.

Site session
Purpose: To remember different visitor preferences on the website.
Duration: For duration of browser session.

Preferred language
Purpose: To be able to provide the website in the visitor's preferred language (if the website contains multiple languages).
Duration: 1 year.

Currency
Purpose: To be able to show prices in the currency matching the visitor's preferences.
Duration: 30 days.

Google Recaptcha
Purpose: To be able to validate whether the visitor is human and to limit the amount of spam from contact forms.
Duration: 1 year.
Provider: Google.


Third-party cookies
These cookies collect information about how visitors use the website, like which pages they've visited and which links they've clicked on. None of this information can be used to identify visitors as all data is anonymized.

ga
Purpose: Registers a unique ID that is used to generate statistical data on how the visitor uses the website.
Duration: 1 year.
Provider: Google.

gid
Purpose: Registers a unique ID that is used to generate statistical data on how the visitor uses the website.
Duration: 24 hours.
Provider: Google.

gat
Purpose: Used by Google Analytics to throttle request rate.
Duration: 1 year.
Provider: Google.

We also integrate with social platforms on this site that allow you to connect with your social network in various ways. Social media integration will set cookies through the website which may be used to enhance your profile on social media sites or contribute to the data they hold for various purposes outlined in their respective privacy policies.