Quote:
Originally Posted by Maritime Q-Scout
But you have a responsibility to mitigate your damages. That's why if you're hit from behind when you're stopped at a red light, and you go into the car infront of you, if you didn't leave enough space you're also partly responsible for the damage to the car ahead of you. You didn't mitigate potential damage.
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That's not really how the concept of mitigation is understood in the law.
Your obligation to mitigate your own damages requires you to take reasonable measures to stop the bleeding, not necessarily to prevent it altogether.
To use a concrete example, if you are wrongfully dismissed from your employment, you have a duty to mitigate your damages by taking reasonable steps to secure new employment. You can't sit on your couch eating Doritos and let the damages for lost wages pile up.
Back to your car accident example, you may be liable for damages caused to the car in front of you because you failed to keep a proper distance between it and your vehicle. That is negligence on your part. You may not be fully responsible for all of the damages as others were also negligent but it doesn't technically have anything to do with mitigating your damages.