Negligence: The king of torts!

Lets talk torts…

I know it’s been awhile, but let’s get back to things with some learning, and I’ll get to the why behind my absence in a later post.

Here are the elements of Negligence: (Directly from the professor’s slide)

Duty: Defendant owed a duty to Plaintiff. (defined by a standard of reasonable care)

Breach: Defendant breached this duty

*Actual Cause: Defendant’s breach of duty was the factual cause of plaintiff’s injury.

*Proximate cause: Defendant’s breach of duty is sufficiently tied to Plaintiff’s injury that D should be held liable.

Actual Harm: Plaintiff suffered actual damages because of the defendant’s breach of duty.

* Two separate elements that some jurisdictions(such as Maryland) put these elements together as one in their terminology.

NOTE: often times the term being negligent refers to the breach itself, and not the entire situation described above.