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When you have a personal injury case in Florida, there are three things you need to prove in order to establish your right to proper compensation. First, you need to prove that the defendant breached a duty of care. Second, you need to prove that you were injured. Third, you need to prove that the defendant’s breach caused your injury. More specifically, you must be able to prove that the defendant’s breach was the proximate cause of your accident-related losses. Read on to learn more from the Fort Myers personal injury lawyers at Spivey Law Firm, Personal Injury Attorneys, P.A.

Understanding the Meaning of “Proximate Cause”

Causation is a key element of all personal injury cases. To establish a claim for compensation, you must be able to prove that someone else is responsible for your injuries. Even if someone else was negligent, if their negligence was not the cause of your injuries, you do not have a personal injury claim under Florida law.

But, even when someone else’s negligence is the cause of your injuries, this still is not necessarily enough to establish a personal injury claim. For example, let us say you almost slipped on a spill at the grocery store but were able to sidestep it just in time. Grocery stores have an obligation to keep their aisles safe, and failing to clean up a spill will constitute negligence in many cases. If this made you cautious about other slip hazards and you injured yourself while attempting to jump over a puddle in your neighborhood later that day, while the grocery store’s negligence may have been a cause of your injuries, in this scenario, it likely wouldn’t warrant a claim for proper compensation.

This is because the grocery store’s negligence was not a proximate cause of your accident.

To constitute a proximate cause, negligence must lead directly to an accident victim’s injuries. Another way of looking at it is that an accident victim’s injuries must be foreseeable to the negligent party. As explained in an article from the Florida Bar Journal:

“The standard of proximate causation in Florida is well established: ‘The key to proximate cause is foreseeability.’”

If the outcome of a party’s negligence is foreseeable, then that party is liable for the outcome. This is the crux of proximate cause under Florida law. If a grocery store fails to clean up a spill, it is foreseeable that a customer will slip on it. It is not foreseeable that the spill will cause the customer to attempt to jump over a puddle in his or her neighborhood.

While this example is fairly clear, determining whether proximate cause exists can be far more complicated in other circumstances. In fact, the question of proximate cause will be the key issue in many personal injury cases. As a result, being able to prove proximate cause is essential, and this is one reason—among many—why it is important to have experienced Fort Myers personal injury lawyers on your side.

Proving Proximate Cause in a Personal Injury Case

Proving proximate cause in a personal injury case requires evidence of the sequence of events leading up to the accident in question. Evidence of proximate cause can take many different forms, and it can be available from various sources.

The key is to focus on the evidence that is available in your case. Investigating a slip-and-fall accident is very different from investigating a car accident—and even different types of car accidents can involve different types of evidence (think about the differences between cases involving distracted driving and drunk driving). As a result, there is no single “right” way to prove proximate cause. Instead, to prove proximate cause in your personal injury case, you need to focus on the specific facts and circumstances involved in your accident.

Broadly speaking, however, our Fort Myers personal injury lawyers use a variety of means to gather evidence and prove proximate cause. These include (but are not limited to):

• On-Scene Investigation – Conducting an on-scene investigation can be critical for proving proximate causation. This makes it important to contact a lawyer as soon after your accident as possible.
• Further Investigation – Beyond examining the accident scene, we may seek to gather evidence from various other sources as well. This can include everything from contacting witnesses to requesting traffic or surveillance camera footage if the accident was caught on video.
• Talking to Our Client – As an accident victim, you may have critical information about proximate causation as well—whether you know it or not. Our lawyers will work closely with you to uncover everything you know about what happened.
• Taking Discovery – In personal injury cases, the discovery process allows victims (and their Fort Myers personal injury lawyers) to obtain evidence from the defendant. This includes any evidence of proximate cause that may be in the defendant’s possession.
• Engaging Experts as Necessary – Experts such as engineers, doctors, and accident reconstructionists can also assist with proving proximate causation in personal injury cases. By examining the evidence and applying their expertise, these individuals can provide key insight into why an accident happened and who is responsible.

With sufficient evidence in hand, proving proximate cause is a matter of applying the law to the facts at hand. Whether this is relatively straightforward or exceptionally complex, it is critical to have experienced legal representation. If you can prove proximate causation and establish liability, then the next step is to prove how much you are entitled to recover—and this requires experienced legal representation as well.

Contact Our Skilled Fort Myers Personal Injury Lawyers for Free

Randall L. Spivey, founder of Spivey Law Firm, Personal Injury Attorneys, P.A. is Board Certified in Civil Trial Law.  Of all the lawyers in the state of Florida, only 1% are Board Certified in Civil Trial Law.  This designates Randall Spivey as a “specialist” or an “expert” in this area.  Certification is the highest level of recognition for competency and experience by the Florida Bar.  Randall L. Spivey is also Preeminent Attorney Rated by Martindale-Hubbell, which is the highest ranking for professional excellence for legal knowledge, communication skills, and ethical standards.  

At Spivey Law Firm, Personal Injury Attorneys, P.A., our Fort Myers personal injury lawyers have decades of experience helping accident victims and their families recover compensation. If you have questions about proximate cause—or about any other aspect of filing a personal injury claim in Florida—we encourage you to contact Randall L. Spivey promptly for more information. To schedule a free, no-obligation consultation, call 239-337-7483 or Statewide call 888-477-4839 or tell us how we can reach you online at Spiveylaw.com today.