There are other factors which might affect the liability of a person whose negligence is alleged to have caused harm.

• If other events intervene as the proximate cause of the harm, the defendant is not liable.  For example, suppose that E undertakes to collect A, an elderly man, and take him to his doctor. E negligently fails to arrive on time. While waiting on the pavement for E, A is struck by a car driven negligently by B. While E’s negligence caused A to be waiting at the place where he was struck down, B’s negligence was the immediate (proximate) cause of the harm.

• If a plaintiff somehow contributed to their own harm (contributory negligence) the plaintiff's losses may be apportioned between the plaintiff and the defendant.

Imbree v McNeilly; McNeilly v Imbree (2008) 236 CLR 510.

• For a plaintiff to successfully claim compensation from a wrongdoer for harm caused, it must be shown that the harm was not too remote. This means that a person in the defendant's position must have contemplated, as a real possibility, the kind of harm that has occurred. A defendant is not liable for harm caused if that harm was beyond what would have been reasonably contemplated..