When someone is injured in a car accident or other incident, it might seem obvious who’s to blame. However, under Georgia personal injury law, simply showing that another person was careless isn’t enough to win your case. You also have to prove causation, meaning that their actions directly led to your injuries.
Causation connects the defendant’s wrongdoing to the harm you suffered. Without that link, even the strongest negligence claim can potentially fail. Learning about how causation works under state law can help you see what evidence you’ll need and why hiring an experienced personal injury lawyer is so important.
The Role of Causation in a Negligence Claim
In Georgia, most personal injury cases are based on negligence.
To prove negligence, you must establish four elements:
- The defendant owed you a duty of care
- They breached that duty
- Their actions caused your injuries
- You suffered measurable damages as a result
Causation is the third and often one of the most contested elements. You must show that the defendant’s conduct was both the actual cause and the legal (proximate) cause of your injuries.
For example, imagine a driver runs a red light and hits another car. If the crash breaks your arm, causation is clear in that the driver’s actions directly caused your injury. However, if you developed back pain weeks later from something unrelated, you couldn’t necessarily blame the driver for that.
Actual Cause vs. Proximate Cause
Georgia courts break causation into two parts: actual cause (also called “cause in fact”) and proximate cause.
Actual Cause
To prove actual cause, you must show that your injury would not have happened “but for” the defendant’s actions. In other words, if the careless act hadn’t occurred, you wouldn’t have been hurt.
For instance, if a store fails to clean up a spill and you slip and fall, the store’s failure to act is the “but for” cause of your injury.
Proximate Cause
Proximate cause is about foreseeability. It limits liability to harms that were reasonably predictable results of the defendant’s conduct. In other words, the defendant may not be held liable for the consequences of their actions that were too remote or unexpected.
For example, if a driver causes a minor fender-bender but another driver miles away has a heart attack from traffic delays, the first driver wouldn’t be legally responsible. The heart attack isn’t a foreseeable result of the crash.
How Georgia’s Comparative Fault Law Affects Causation
Georgia has a modified comparative negligence statute on the books, which means you can still recover compensation even if you share some of the blame. However, you cannot be 50% or more at fault to recover damages.
Causation plays a role here, too. For instance, a court might ultimately have to decide how much of your injury was caused by your own actions versus the defendant’s. Your damages may then be reduced by your percentage of fault.
For example, if you’re awarded $50,000 but found 20% responsible, you’ll receive $40,000. If you’re 50% or more responsible, you can’t recover anything.
This makes it essential to show how the other party’s actions were the primary cause of the accident and resulting injuries. A respected personal injury lawyer can help you respond to allegations of shared fault appropriately.
Proving Causation in a Georgia Personal Injury Case
Causation must be proven with clear, credible evidence. As the personal injury victim, you must prove every element of your claim “by a preponderance of the evidence,” which is about a 51% or higher likelihood.
Common types of evidence used to prove causation include:
- Accident reports: Police or incident reports can help establish what happened and who was involved.
- Medical records: These connect your injuries to the specific accident, demonstrating things like their timing and severity.
- Expert witnesses: Doctors, engineers, and accident reconstruction experts can explain how the event caused your injuries.
- Photos and videos: Visual evidence helps show how the accident unfolded and what conditions contributed to it.
- Witness statements: Eyewitness accounts can confirm key details about the event and the defendant’s behavior.
If you hire a personal injury lawyer, one of their key tasks will be to collect the necessary evidence to prove your claim, including as it relates to the cause.
When Causation Becomes Complicated
In many personal injury cases, causation is one of the hardest, if not the hardest, elements to prove. This is especially true in accidents involving factors like multiple parties and preexisting conditions.
For example:
- A worker with a bad back gets hurt lifting heavy boxes. Was it the job that caused the injury, or an old condition that was caused by something else previously?
- A multi-car pileup injures several people. Which driver’s negligence set the chain of events in motion?
In these cases, expert analysis can help establish the timeline and rule out other possible causes. Without that evidence, the defense may argue that your injuries weren’t their fault.
Contact Mayfield Law, LLC to Set Up a Free Consultation
If you’ve been injured because of someone else’s negligence, proving causation is a critical part of your case. It’s not always as simple as it seems, however, and insurance companies often dispute it to avoid paying fair compensation.
An experienced personal injury attorney can help you establish causation as the law allows and, from there, work to put as much compensation into your pocket as possible. Schedule a free consultation with Mayfield Law, LLC today to get started. Call us at 912-733-4651.
