It is often claimed that the rules of contributory negligence apply to unreasonable claimant conduct that occurs prior to or contemporaneously with the defendant’s wrong, whereas the rule of avoidable losses (failure to mitigate) applies to unreasonable claimant conduct that occurs after the defendant’s wrong. Others argue that this distinction is normatively indefensible, since both doctrines are concerned with whether the claimant acted unreasonably in his or her own interests, and that the consequences of such conduct ought therefore to be the same regardless of when it occurs relative to the defendant’s wrong. In this article, I demonstrate that both views are flawed, and that the preferable distinction rests simply on whether the claimant’s unreasonable conduct (i) contributes to the claimant’s damage (contributory negligence) or (ii) increases the indirect losses that flow from that damage (the rule of avoidable losses).

中文翻译：

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共同过失和可避免损失规则

人们经常声称，共同过失规则适用于在被告犯错之前或同时发生的不合理索赔行为，而可避免损失（未能减轻）规则适用于在被告犯错之后发生的不合理索赔行为。其他人争辩说，这种区别在规范上是站不住脚的，因为这两种学说都涉及原告是否为了自己的利益采取了不合理的行为，因此这种行为的后果应该是相同的，无论这种行为何时发生与被告的错误有关。 . 在这篇文章中，我证明这两种观点都有缺陷，