{"id":4644,"date":"2016-04-20T12:58:29","date_gmt":"2016-04-20T15:58:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/?p=4644"},"modified":"2016-04-20T12:58:29","modified_gmt":"2016-04-20T15:58:29","slug":"legal-causation-in-bodily-injury-forensic-engineers-view","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/2016\/04\/20\/legal-causation-in-bodily-injury-forensic-engineers-view\/","title":{"rendered":"Legal causation in bodily injury: Forensic engineer’s view"},"content":{"rendered":"

A plaintiff’s lawyer\u00a0doesn’t have a reliable legal claim –\u00a0and money well spent on a medical expert, until the technical issues in a personal injury case are identified and investigated, and the cause of the accident established. \u00a0Only then can the responsible parties be reliably identified by the lawyer.<\/p>\n

I know this because I have been retained as an expert to investigate\u00a0the cause of accidents like slip and fall, motor vehicle, toxic fume emission and\u00a0ladder falls.\u00a0 There are different elements in cases like these.\u00a0\u00a0Legal and medical elements are two. \u00a0The technical element\u00a0is another – an important\u00a0one that comes first in a personal injury case if it’s to start off on the right foot.<\/p>\n

There are also several different involved parties depending on the technical cause of the accident – at least four in a slip and fall accident. (Refs 1, 2)\u00a0 And a similar number in a ladder accident.<\/p>\n

I was reminded of this when I read about the plaintiff legal practice conference<\/strong> entitled “The Doctor Is\u00a0In: Medical Elements of Injury Cases”.\u00a0 It’s planned for this June in St. John’s by the Atlantic Provinces Trial Lawyers Association (APTLA).<\/p>\n

The two day conference looks extremely good for practicing lawyers with at least a\u00a0dozen featured topics and national and international speakers from the medical and legal professions. The topics are medical or closely related as would be expected. \u00a0The topics on the law of expert evidence and preparing\u00a0to discover an\u00a0expert are also timely, particularly to those of us retained as experts.<\/p>\n

An important\u00a0two-part\u00a0topic is on causation:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. A pathologist’s view of medical causation in bodily injury<\/li>\n
  2. Legal causation, the law and variance from medical causation<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    This topic really needs to be treated in three parts for an even\u00a0more complete and comprehensive conference:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. A pathologist’s view of medical causation in bodily injury<\/li>\n
    2. Legal causation, the law and variance from medical causation<\/li>\n
    3. A forensic engineer’s view<\/strong> of technical causation in bodily<\/strong> injury<\/strong> and how it varies from legal causation<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      How can\u00a0a lawyer\u00a0confidently<\/em> and reliably<\/em> process a plaintiff’s claim for damages arising from bodily injury when\u00a0he or she doesn’t know the technical cause of the\u00a0accident and from that the party(s) responsible?\u00a0 The emphasis is on confidently<\/em> and reliably<\/em> because\u00a0lawyers are\u00a0doing it now and managing often enough.\u00a0 But that’s not good enough.<\/p>\n

      Establishing causation involves a two-stage inquiry: (Ref. 3)<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. The first stage involves establishing ‘factual’<\/strong> causation.\u00a0\u00a0That is, determining exactly what happened and who\u00a0might have been\u00a0involved in\u00a0the incident. \u00a0This is the\u00a0forensic engineering\u00a0investigation.<\/li>\n
      2. The second stage involves establishing ‘legal’<\/strong> causation.\u00a0\u00a0This is when a\u00a0lawyer reviews the factual causation – after it’s been established, and determines if the law is involved in the incident.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        Determining factual causation<\/em> in cases like the following<\/strong> is not lawyer-work.\u00a0 It’s not even in the engineering text books in some cases and for certain not in the medical and legal text books.\u00a0 A forensic engineer often has to “figure it out” as he goes along.<\/p>\n

        And\u00a0often enough there is more than one party involved in what happened.\u00a0 These parties are not known until the\u00a0engineering investigation is complete.\u00a0 I’ve seen the wrong party named in cases that were filed months, sometimes years before\u00a0I was retained to investigate\u00a0an\u00a0incident.<\/p>\n

        Some examples of personal injury cases:<\/p>\n