California
Personal Injury Attorneys

Causation Direct and Proximate Cause, also known as legal cause, is the immediate reason damage was caused by an act or omission (negligence); the negligence must have caused the damages, without intervention of another party, and cannot be remote in time or place.

Example (from a complaint): "Defendant's negligent acts (speeding and losing control of his vehicle) directly and proximately caused plaintiff's injuries."

Like duty analysis, the legal cause determination may also involve the court asking whether the injury was a reasonably foreseeable result of the negligent act or omission.

Factual cause is usually described as "but for" cause, and usually requires the plaintiff to prove that "but for" defendant's neglligent act or omission, the injury would not have occurred.