What is Negligence ? - Personal Injury - Birmingham Solicitors Personal Injury Solicitor

What is “Negligence”?

In tort law, negligence refers to harm caused by carelessness as opposed to harm caused by malicious intent. It is defined as “a failure to exercise the care that a reasonably prudent person would exercise in like circumstances.” If an individual can prove in a court of law that another acted negligently so as to cause his injury, he can be awarded damages so as to compensate for his harm. This compensation may be for harm to body, property, mental well-being, financial status or intimate relationships.

Elements of Negligence

In the analysis of a negligence claim, it is broken down into elements, similar to the analysis of a crime. It is incumbent upon the claimant to prove each of these elements for his claim to stand. Should he fail to prove any one element, then his claim will fail.

These elements break down as follows; the plaintiff must prove:

· A duty of care

· Breach of that duty

· Breach causing harm in fact

· The harm must not be too remote a consequence of the breach

Duty of Care

An individual can be owed a duty of care by another, where it is the duty of that other to take care that the individual does not suffer unreasonable harm or loss. Originally, a duty of care was only established through contractual agreements; but throughout the twentieth century, the idea developed whereby individuals owed strangers a duty of care. This has now expanded into a coherent judicial test which must be satisfied for this element of negligence to be proven.

A duty of care can be said to arise in a situation whereby an individual or group undertakes an action which could reasonably harm another physically, mentally or economically. Should an individual not have created a situation which may cause harm, then there is no duty of care to warn others of any dangers or to prevent harm occurring.

Breach of Duty

A claimant must prove that not only were they owed a duty of care, but also that there was a breach of that duty for a negligence claim to stand. It is considered that a breach of duty has taken place where the defendant’s conduct fell short of what would reasonably have been expected under the circumstances.

Breach Causing Harm in Fact

The claimant must be able to prove that the defendant’s breach of care directly caused the claimant’s loss and damage for the negligence claim to stand. This is also known as causation.

Remoteness of Consequence

Finally, the test of causation requires that the loss or damage sustained as a result of the breach of duty of care was not too remote; that is that the damage caused was in fact foreseeable from the action of the defendant.

Only with these four elements satisfied can a claim for negligence be brought.