Causation – Basic Principles: The Murky Waters of Causation in Medical Negligence

This is the fifth article in our 8 part series on medical malpractice litigation. Medical negligence is a particularly complicated area of the law, largely due to the need to establish causation. Motor vehicle accidents may have causation issues arising out of an argument about whether a particular injury was pre-existing or the result of the accident, but primary causation is relatively easy to establish: plaintiff was healthy, plaintiff was hit by a car, plaintiff is now injured. Medical negligence is rarely so clear cut. In this article we explore the complexities of causation in the medical malpractice realm.