In personal injury cases, the injured party has the obligation to take all reasonable steps to minimize the effects and loss related to his or her injuries. A defendant in a personal injury case will often try to reduce the amount of damages the plaintiff may recover by showing that the plaintiff failed to take reasonable steps to reduce his or her loss following the injury. The rule of "mitigation of damages" denies a personal injury plaintiff the right to recover that part of his or her damages which the court or a jury finds could reasonably have been avoided.

Examples of this include:

• Choosing not to have surgery
• Failure to seek medical attention
• Refusing medical treatment or disregarding advice
• Use of alternative treatment
• Failure to seek employment