Negligence is the backbone of personal injury and professional liability work, and almost every claim turns first on two questions: did the defendant owe the claimant a duty of care, and did they breach it? Get these two elements right and you can quickly tell a strong claim from a hopeless one — a judgement you will make constantly in practice when advising clients and assessing whether a case is worth pursuing or defending.
This lesson builds your understanding step by step, from when a duty exists to how a court decides someone has fallen short.
- Elements and Establishing a Duty of Care — the four building blocks of a claim and how courts decide whether a duty is owed.
- The Caparo Test — the three-stage approach used to recognise a duty in novel situations.
- Acts, Omissions and Special Duties — why failing to act is treated differently, and the exceptions that create a duty to help.
- The Standard of Care — the objective benchmark, how it applies to learners, specialists and the intoxicated (who get no allowance), and the genuine adjustment made for children.
- Assessing Breach — the factors a court weighs to decide whether conduct fell short.
- Res Ipsa Loquitur — how a claimant can infer negligence from the facts when the precise cause is unclear.