In a negligence case, the plaintiff must establish…
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In a negligence case, the plaintiff must establish
Question:
What does the plaintiff have to establish in a negligence case?
Answer:
In a negligence case, the plaintiff must establish four elements, namely that the defendant owed the plaintiff a duty of care, there was a breach of duty, causation, and damages.
Elements of Negligence
To successfully prosecute a negligence case, the plaintiff must demonstrate:
- Duty of care
- Breach of duty of care
- Causation (actual cause or proximate cause)
- Damages
In other words, the plaintiff must be able to show that the defendant owed a duty of care to the plaintiff.
For example, a physician owes a duty of care to the patient.
Then, the plaintiff must demonstrate that the duty of care was breached.
For instance, the physician committed a medical error or was negligent in a certain way causing the patient injuries.
Then, there must be a connection between the breach of the duty of care and the damages caused.
For example, due to the physician’s negligence, the patient had to get another operation causing damages to the patient.
Finally, the plaintiff must prove damages.
In other words, the doctor’s negligence was the direct or proximate cause for the damages suffered.
Takeaways
So, in a negligence case, the plaintiff must generally establish what exactly?
Let’s look at a summary of our findings.
In a negligence case, the plaintiff must establish:
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