In a bodily Injury or wrongful death lawsuit, there are basically three major hurdles that need to be overcome to keep you in court until you can have the judge or jury decide your case. Those same hurdles exist in trying to get your case settled before it ever gets to court. If the insurance claims adjustor for the at-fault party can be convinced you will likely overcome those hurdles in court, settlement can often be achieved before a lawsuit is ever filed.

So what are those hurdles? The law requires you, the injured party, to plead and prove facts establishing the following legal elements. 

1. Liability.

2. Causation.

3. Damages.

Liability and damages are addressed under their own sections. Here, we discuss the concept of causation.

CAUSATION:

Causation simply means that the act (or omission to act) of the at-fault person or entity that injured you, or caused the death of your loved one, was a substantial factor in causing you harm. So, what does that mean? For example, a person can run a red light thereby legally violating the Vehicle Code. However, if their running the red light did not result in any injury to you then there has been no causation of harm.

The legal relationship between liability (legal fault) and causation of harm can be very straight forward. For example, that same car runs a red light, hits you, and the paramedics extract you from your car with a broken leg. Odds are your leg was not broken when you got into your car that day. But what if the same at-fault driver hits you and weeks later you start to experience fatigue, headaches, visual disturbances, memory loss, dizziness or loss of balance, etc… – all signs of a possible mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI). Now, causation between the collision and your MTBI is not so clear since you did not have those symptoms immediately following the collision. The defense will spend time and money to try and show that while their driver may have been at fault in the collision, your brain injury came from somewhere else, not the collision. We know how to establish causation!

We have access to the best accident reconstruction and medical experts in America.
Let us review your case for free. As always, no recovery, no fee.