Proximate cause is a legal concept used in tort law to determine whether a defendant's actions are closely enough related to a plaintiff's injury to hold the defendant liable. It is a necessary component in establishing causation in negligence cases.
In simpler terms, proximate cause refers to the primary cause of an injury that is a direct result of a person’s actions, as opposed to a remote or indirect cause. Courts often use the "foreseeability" test to evaluate proximate cause, asking whether the harm that occurred was a foreseeable result of the defendant's actions. If the injury was a foreseeable outcome of the defendant's conduct, it is more likely that the court will find proximate cause.
To illustrate, consider a scenario where a driver runs a red light and collides with another vehicle, causing injuries to the other driver. The driver's decision to run the red light is the proximate cause of the injury because that action directly led to the accident and the subsequent injuries were a foreseeable result of that action.
Proximate cause is often distinguished from "actual cause" (or "cause-in-fact"), which refers to whether the defendant's actions directly led to the injury, while proximate cause assesses the connection between the conduct and the harm in broader, more policy-oriented terms.