Negligence 2

Three key elements to establish negligence, in order:

• Duty of care

• Breach of duty

• Causation

Supreme Court case which clarified the correct approach to establishing whether a duty of care is owed.

Existing precedent means

• New laws created by Parliament

• Previous court decisions that serve as binding authority

• Legal opinions from academic journals

• International treaties and agreements

Statutory authority means...

• The power of judges to create new laws.

• Legal power granted by a written law enacted by a legislature (e.g. Parliament)

• The authority of a lawyer to represent a client

• The power of a police officer to make an arrest

In a novel situation, the Court should reason by analogy to establish a duty of care. This means the Court should:

• Ignore previous court decisions and create new legal principles.

• Apply the specific facts of the Robinson case to all future negligence claims.

• Examine how the legal principles applied in other cases can be applied to similar, but not identical, factual situations

• Relying solely on policy considerations to determine whether a duty of care is owed.

Which of the following best describes the "incremental approach" in establishing a duty of care?

• A method where courts create entirely new legal principles for novel situations

• A method where courts rapidly expand the scope of duty of care to encompass all foreseeable harm

• A method where courts develop legal principles cautiously and gradually, building upon established categories of duty

• A method where courts disregard previous case law and rely solely on policy considerations

The neighbour principle tells us a duty of care is owed to...

• Our literal, physical neighbours are.

• We only owe a duty of care to those we know personally.

• Those who it is reasonably foreseeable will be affected by our actions.

• Those who we have a contractual obligation to.

The concept of "duty of care" means:

• A legal obligation to avoid causing harm to others.

• A moral obligation to help those in need.

• A contractual obligation between two parties.

• A social obligation to be polite.

In the context of negligence, "foreseeability" refers to:

• The ability to predict the future with certainty.

• The ability to reasonably anticipate that harm might result from one's actions.

• The ability to read someone's mind.

• The ability to control the weather.

Organize these options into true/false

Groups:

(a) True

,

(b) False

• If someone suffers harm, it automatically means someone else was negligent.

• A duty of care can exist even if there is no direct relationship between two people.

• Everyone owes a duty of care to everyone else.

• Negligence requires proof of intention to cause harm.