LAW 122 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Liability Insurance, Contributory Negligence, Professional Negligence In English Law
7 Apr 2016
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Plainif needs to prove that defendant: owed a duty of care, breached the standard of care by acing carelessly, caused harm to plainif. Professional negligence: refers to negligence commited by a professional person (i. e. banker, lawyer, accountant) Duty of care: exists if d is required to use reasonable care to avoid injuring p. Without duty of care there cannot be liability even if d carelessly injured p. If yes to 1 and 2, is there public policy reason to deny duty of care. Test is whether a reasonable person would have foreseen risk of harm. Must somehow be a close and direct connecion between paries. Types of proximity relaionships: physical (i. e. d swinging bat and hits p, social (i. e. parent and child, casual connecion (i. e. motorist rams into a bridge will be liable for damage to bridge) Concept of proximity is broad and open-ended allows courts to consider all circumstances before recognizing duty of care in novel scenario.
