It CAN be difficult but not always. Negligence, or what people commonly refer to as “fault” is only one part of the claim. An injured victim is required under the law to also prove that the victim was injured from the accident as well as the nature and extent of the injuries. Consequently, the “fight” is about injuries, extent, and causation- not whether the other driver was at fault.
Proving damages can be the most difficult part of a case. Proof has a legal standard. In Arizona, the standard of proof in a civil case is called “preponderance of the evidence.” The mathematical analogy of “preponderance” is generally understood as 51 %.
In other words, you must prove your claim and every element of your claim, including damages, by 51%. As an example, an injury’s cause may be caused by a variety of things. A lower back herniation can arise from trauma (e.g. a car accident), age, an awkward movement, etc. In order to relate a given injury to a given event, such as a car accident, the law requires a medical professional to provide a causal relationship. The proof, to be relevant, must be accomplished by a standard of probability. Did the herniation arise from age or from trauma?
A physician must be able to opine that it arose from trauma (e.g. car accident) for your claim to be viable. The physician need not be certain in his or her opinion as the law does not require certainty, it requires probability. Thus, a physician cannot opine that a herniation was possibly caused by a car accident. Likewise, a physician need not have to say that a herniation was certainly caused by a car accident. The former is too little proof, and the latter (certainty) is too high a standard of proof. However, a physician must be able to state that the herniation was probably (51%) caused by the car accident as compared to any other potential cause.
Is proof of damages easy? No, it requires medical probability. It requires discussions with your physicians and opinions by your physicians. While not “easy” proof does require work and diligence by your central Phoenix injury lawyer.