Causation in a Missouri injury negligence claim is the legal requirement to prove that another person’s careless actions directly caused your accident and injuries.
You must establish a clear connection between the at-fault party’s negligent behavior and the harm you suffered. Without proving this link, you cannot recover compensation, even if the other driver clearly violated traffic laws or acted recklessly.
Understanding causation is critical because it’s one of four essential elements in any successful negligence claim in Missouri.
Insurance companies often dispute causation to avoid paying fair compensation, arguing that preexisting conditions caused your injuries, the low speed of impact, or other factors unrelated to their driver’s actions.
These tactics can leave accident victims confused and frustrated when trying to recover damages for medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering.
Proving Causation: The Link Between Negligence and Your Injury
Missouri law requires you to satisfy two distinct legal tests to prove causation: Actual Cause and Proximate Cause.
Actual Cause (The “But-For” Test):
This determines whether the injury would have occurred absent the defendant’s actions. You must prove that “but for” the other driver’s negligence, you would be uninjured.
For example, if a driver rear-ends you, the actual cause of your whiplash is their failure to stop.
Proximate Cause (Foreseeability):
This looks at whether the injury was a reasonably foreseeable result of the defendant’s behavior. It prevents a defendant from being held liable for extremely remote or bizarre consequences.
If a driver hits a power pole and a person three blocks away trips in the dark, the connection might be considered too remote to establish proximate cause.
How Does Causation Fit Into Negligence?
Causation is one of the four essential pieces you need to prove in any Missouri negligence case. All four elements must be present for your claim to succeed.
You must establish these four elements:
- Duty: The other driver had a legal responsibility to drive safely and follow traffic laws.
- Breach: They violated that duty through careless actions like speeding, texting, or running a red light.
- Causation: Their careless behavior directly caused your accident and injuries.
- Damages: You suffered real harm with medical bills, lost wages, and pain.
Missing any one of these elements means your case will fail. That’s why proving causation is so critical to getting compensation for your injuries.
What Tests Do Courts Use for Causation?
Missouri courts apply two different tests depending on how many factors contributed to your accident. Most cases use the simpler but-for test, while complex situations require the substantial factor test.
| Test Type | When Courts Use It | Key Question |
| But-For Test | Single cause accidents | Would the injury have occurred without the defendant’s action? |
| Substantial Factor Test | Multiple cause accidents | Was the defendant’s action a substantial factor in causing the injury? |
The but-for test applies when one specific action caused your injuries. The considerable factor test applies when multiple actions or conditions combine to cause the accident.
For instance, if poor road conditions and a speeding driver both contributed to your crash, courts would use the substantial factor test. They’d ask whether the speeding was sufficient to hold the driver responsible, even though other factors also played a role.
What Evidence Proves Causation After a Crash?
Building a strong causation case requires specific types of evidence that clearly connect the other driver’s actions to your injuries. We focus on gathering proof that tells a complete story of what happened and why.
The strength of your evidence often determines whether insurance companies will offer fair settlements or fight your claim. Solid proof makes it much harder for them to deny causation or shift blame to you.
Key Evidence That Helps Prove Causation
- Police Reports: Official documentation of traffic violations, witness statements, and the officer’s conclusions about how the crash occurred.
- Witness Statements: Independent accounts from people who saw the accident happen or observed the other driver’s behavior beforehand.
- Photos and Videos: Visual evidence of vehicle damage, skid marks, traffic signals, and road conditions at the crash scene.
- Medical Records: Treatment notes that link your specific injuries directly to the accident and rule out other causes.
- Expert Testimony: Professional analysis from accident reconstruction specialists who can explain exactly how the crash happened.
We start collecting this evidence immediately because much of it disappears quickly. Surveillance footage is erased, witnesses forget details, and physical evidence at the crash scene is cleaned up or deteriorates.
When Do Insurers Dispute Causation?
Insurance companies actively look for ways to “break the chain” of causation to avoid paying claims. If an adjuster can prove that a factor other than their driver’s negligence caused your harm, they can legally deny your compensation. Understanding these common tactics is the first step in protecting your right to a fair settlement.
The Eggshell Skull Rule and Preexisting Injuries
Insurers frequently argue that your pain stems from an old injury or chronic condition rather than the crash. However, Missouri follows the Eggshell Skull Doctrine, which states that a defendant is responsible for the full extent of the harm they cause, even if the victim was more susceptible to injury.
Low Speed Impacts and Minimal Property Damage
A common tactic of adjusters is to assert that low-speed collisions cannot cause physical harm. They use photographs of minor bumper damage to suggest that the impact was too slight to cause injury. In reality, vehicle frames often absorb the visual damage while transferring the full force of the impact to the occupants’ necks and spines.
Delays in Treatment and “Gaps” in Care
If you did not see a doctor immediately after the crash, insurance companies will argue that your injuries must have happened somewhere else. They use any delay in medical attention to cast doubt on the source of your pain.
Blame Shifting in Multi-Vehicle Crashes
In chain-reaction accidents, each insurance company involved seeks to blame other drivers to reduce its own payout. Missouri uses a pure comparative fault system, which means your own percentage of responsibility reduces your compensation.
Our skilled auto accident attorneys untangle these complex highway pileups by using accident reconstruction and digital evidence to ensure fault is placed on the truly negligent parties and not unfairly shifted onto you.
How Does Comparative Fault Affect Causation?
Missouri follows a pure comparative fault rule, which means you can still recover compensation even if you were partially responsible for the accident.
This system affects causation by allowing multiple parties to share responsibility for an accident. Even if the other driver’s actions were the primary cause, you might still bear some responsibility for your injuries.
Here’s how it works: if you’re found 20% at fault for an accident that caused $50,000 in damages, you can still recover $40,000. The other driver’s insurer pays 80% because the other driver was 80% responsible for the crash.
Insurance companies often use comparative fault to reduce their payouts. They’ll argue you contributed to the accident through speeding, not wearing a seatbelt, or failing to avoid the collision when possible.
What Is the Burden of Proof for Causation?
In Missouri personal injury cases, you must prove causation by a preponderance of the evidence.
Preponderance of evidence is much easier to meet than the “beyond a reasonable doubt” standard used in criminal cases. You only need to tip the scales slightly in your favor, not prove your case with absolute certainty.
Think of it as a 51% versus 49% situation. If the evidence makes it more probable than not that the other driver caused your injuries, you’ve met the burden of proof for causation.
This lower standard makes it easier for injured people to recover compensation. Courts recognize that accident victims shouldn’t have to prove their cases with the same certainty required to send someone to prison.
What Is the Deadline to File an Injury Claim in Missouri?
Missouri gives you five years from the date of your accident to file a personal injury lawsuit. This deadline is called the statute of limitations, and missing it means losing your right to any compensation forever.
The five-year clock starts ticking on the day your accident happened, not when you discovered your injuries or finished medical treatment. Once this deadline passes, even the strongest causation evidence won’t help you recover damages.
Some situations have much shorter deadlines that can trap unwary accident victims:
Government Vehicle Accidents:
Claims against city, county, or state entities often require formal notice within 90 days.
Commercial Vehicle Crashes:
Some trucking companies have special notice requirements in their insurance policies.
Hit-and-Run Cases:
Uninsured motorist claims may have different deadlines depending on your insurance policy.
Don’t wait to protect your rights. Evidence disappears, witnesses move away, and legal deadlines approach, whether you’re ready or not.
When Should You Contact a Missouri Car Accident Attorney?
The sooner you contact an experienced attorney, the better your chances of proving causation and recovering fair compensation. We can start preserving evidence and building your case while the details are still fresh.
Many people wait too long because they believe their case is simple or hope the insurer will be fair. Unfortunately, insurers rarely offer adequate compensation without legal pressure, especially when causation issues arise.
At Beck & Beck Missouri Car Accident Lawyers, we’ve spent over 35 years focusing exclusively on Missouri auto accident cases. This specialization provides us with deep expertise in establishing causation in even the most challenging situations.
How We Build Strong Causation Cases
Our approach to proving causation starts with a thorough investigation of every detail surrounding your accident. We don’t just accept the police report or the insurance company’s version of events.
We reconstruct the entire sequence of events leading up to your crash. This includes examining the other driver’s actions, road conditions, weather, vehicle maintenance, and any other factors that might have contributed to the accident.
Our investigation process includes:
- Scene Analysis: We visit the crash location to examine physical evidence, assess sight lines, and determine traffic patterns.
- Vehicle Inspection: We examine both vehicles for mechanical problems, safety defects, or maintenance issues that might have caused the crash.
- Driver Background: We research the other driver’s history for previous accidents, traffic violations, or patterns of dangerous behavior.
- Medical Review: We work with medical experts to establish clear connections between the crash forces and your specific injuries.
This comprehensive approach helps us build causation cases that insurance companies can’t easily dispute. When we present clear, detailed evidence of how their driver caused your injuries, settlements become much more likely.
Why Beck & Beck Missouri Car Accident Lawyers Is Different
As Missouri’s only law firm that focuses exclusively on auto accident cases, we understand the unique challenges of establishing causation in car crash claims. Our specialization means we’ve seen every type of causation dispute and know how to overcome them.
We don’t accept weak causation arguments from insurance companies and fight to secure fair compensation for our clients. When they try to blame preexisting conditions, low-speed impacts, or delayed treatment, we fight back with solid evidence and expert testimony.
Our family-run firm treats every client personally, not like another case number. We explain the causation issues in your case clearly and keep you informed throughout the legal process.
You pay no fees unless we win your case, and we’re available 24/7 to answer your questions. Don’t let insurance companies use causation disputes to deny the compensation you deserve.
FAQs: Missouri Causation in Negligence Claims
Do Missouri Courts Use But-For or Substantial Factor Tests?
Missouri courts use the but-for test for most single-cause accidents and the substantial factor test when multiple actions contribute to an injury.
How Do I Prove a Crash Worsened My Preexisting Condition?
You need medical records from before and after the accident showing how your condition changed, plus a doctor’s opinion linking the worsening to the crash.
What If Multiple Drivers Caused My Injuries?
Missouri law lets you recover from all at-fault drivers, with each paying their share based on their percentage of responsibility for the accident.
Do I Need Medical Experts to Prove Causation?
Complex injuries or preexisting conditions usually require expert testimony, but straightforward cases may rely on medical records and your doctor’s treatment notes.
Is Causation Harder to Prove in Minor Accidents?
Yes, insurance companies often argue that low-speed crashes can’t cause serious injuries, making strong medical evidence and expert testimony crucial.
