Negligence In Law

Negligence is a conduct that falls below the
standards of behaviour established by law. In other words, it is a failure to exercise the care, that a reasonable prudent person would exercise in like circumstance. Under negligence law, there are two different forms of negligence. In one form, a person does something that a reasonable person would not do. In the other form a person fails to take action that a reasonable person would take to prevent harm. It is a legal concept that is usually used to achieve compensation for accidents and injuries. Negligence can occur in any aspect of professional practice.
The modern law of negligence was established in the case of Donoghue v Stevenson (1932) AC 5162. In that case, Mrs Donoghue, went to a café with a friend. The friend bought her a bottle of ginger beer and Ice cream. The ginger beer came in an opaque bottle, so that the content could not be seen. Mrs Donoghue poured half of the content of the bottle over her ice cream and also drank some from the bottle. After eating part of the ice cream, she then poured the remaining content of the bottle over the ice cream and a decomposed snail emerged from the bottle. Mrs Donoghue suffered personal injury as a result. She then commenced a claim against the manufacturer of the ginger beer. Her claim was successful.
In order to win a negligence case, the plaintiff must prove the following four elements to show that the defendant acted negligently:
1)    Duty: In assessing negligence claim, the first step is to look to see whether or not the defendant owed the plaintiff a legal duty of care. For instance a doctor owes a patient a legal duty to provide him or her with competent medical care.
2)    Breach of Duty: To prove negligence the court will look to see whether the defendant breached this duty by doing or not doing something that a reasonable prudent person would do.
3)    Causation: The third element requires that the plaintiff shows that the defendant’s negligence actually caused his or her injury. Another aspect of this element looks at whether the defendant could reasonably have foreseen that his or her actions might cause an injury. If the defendant’s actions caused the plaintiff injury through an unexpected act of nature, the injury would most likely be deemed unforeseeable and the defendant would not likely be liable.
4) Damages: This requires that the court be able to compensate the plaintiff for his or her injury.
Many negligence cases are settled out of court, rather than being litigated. People who are found guilty of negligence are normally required to make restitution to the victim by paying a sum of money. Jail term is rarely given because most judges feel it does not benefit society to incarcerate people for what one often damaged as a result of unfortunate accidents.

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