LAW 122 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Contributory Negligence, Professional Negligence In English Law, Reasonable Person
28 Jan 2017
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Basic elements: the defendant owed the plaintiff a duty of care, the defendant breached that duty, the plaintiff suffered a loss, the breach of duty by the defendant was the proximate cause of the plai(cid:374)tiff"s loss. Without your action it would have not happened. Negating any element will be complete defence to a claim of negligence. Defendant may show that the plaintiff: was guilty of contributory negligence that caused or contributed to the injury, voluntarily assumed the risk of being injured by the defendant, was injured whiled engaged in some form of illegal behaviour. Professional negligence: simply refers to negligence that is committed by a professional person, such as a banker, a lawyer, or an accountant. Law of negligence contains a tension between two important values: the courts want a wide scope of liability in order to compensate people who suffer injuries, the courts recognize that liability sometimes hurts society.
