Ch 8. Negligence Flashcards
Most incident related civil suits against fire departments,, firefighters, and emergency medical personnel involve accusations of ____. (200)
negligence
3 elements that must be present for an action for negligence to exist. (200)
1) An act or omission
2) Damages to the plaintiff
3) Breach of the standard of care
Any ____, such as driving a piece of apparatus, creates a duty to protect others from foreseeable, unreasonable risks. (201)
affirmative action
An omission, or failure to act, can be grounds for negligence only when ____. (201)
one is under a legal duty to act
A duty to act is created by ____. (202)
the relationship between the parties
The act or omission that constitutes negligence must result in ____. (203)
actual damages to the victim
The negligent act must be the ____ of the damages or harm. (203)
proximate cause
_____ is a legal term referring to the fact that the act in question is the legal cause of the harm that results. (203)
Proximate cause
When engaging in any activity, a person is expected to exercise the care that the reasonably prudent person would exercise under the circumstances. This is referred to as ___.
the ordinary standard of care (or the reasonable prudent persons standard of care)
The standard of care is a measure of ____. (203)
what the community expects and demands from everyone
In a trial for negligence, in order for the jury to make the decision of what the reasonably prudent person would have done under the circumstances, the jury takes into account ____. (204)
the collective life experiences of each juror
Professional acts of negligence are often referred to as ____. (204)
malpractice
Those with professional skills and training are held to the standard of the ____. (204)
reasonably prudent professional
4 categories of evidence introduced to a negligence case involving professional standard of care. (207)
1) Expert witnesses
2) Learned treatises (books, journals, articles, and other writings that explain what the standard of care should be)
3) Laws and regulations
4) Industry-wide standards
Deviation from ____ makes it relatively easy for an injured patient to establish negligence on the part of emergency medical technicians and paramedics. (209)
prehospital protocols
Many jurisdictions now consider issues of patient treatment, consent, informed consent, and implied consent to be matters better suited to consideration as negligence. Courts will look at the standard of care of the reasonable prudent medical provider, and determine if the provider was negligent in __2__. (210)
1) not providing enough information to the patient
or
2) not obtaining valid consent
____ is the intentional stopping of medical care without legal excuse or justification. (210)
Abandonment
Most authorities now seem to conclude that abandonment is based on ___. (211)
negligence
___ will be an important consideration in establishing the appropriate standard of care. (211)
State and local pre-hospital protocols
____ is an aggravated form of negligence that involves an extreme departure from the ordinary standard of care. (211)
Gross negligence
An aggravated form of gross negligence, referred to as willful, wanton, and reckless behavior. (211)
Recklessness
It is ___ that separates recklessness from gross negligence. (211)
the conscious knowledge that harm was likely to result
under ____, the jury is responsible to apportioning fault among the various responsible parties. (214)
comparative negligence
___ is a principle that developed under contributory negligence to ensure that someone who is injured while coming to the rescue of another can recover damages from the person who negligently caused the situation. (214)
The rescue doctrine
The rescue doctrine is based on the recognition that ___. (214)
danger invites rescue
___ is a tort defense that arises when two parties have both been negligent, but the second party has the opportunity to avoid harm and fails to do so. (218)
The last clear chance doctrine
The ___ rule prohibits an injured firefighter from suing the person who negligently causes a fire or emergency, or negligently maintains the property on which a fire or emergency occurs. (219)
fireman’s
Throughout most of the study of law, we have seen a principle that equates liability with ___. (223)
fault
Under ___, if harm results, the actor will be responsible for any and all harm without regard to fault. Whether the actor exercised due care, or even exceeded due care, he will be liable for any damages that occur. (223)
strict liability
A legal doctrine that holds an employer liable for the torts of its employees, provided the torts are committed within the scope of the workers’ employment. This is a form of strict liability. (225)
Respondeat superior (or vicarious liability)
When negligence of 2 or more persons combines to cause damage to a victim, each of the negligent parties can be held liable for ___. (227)
the entire amount of damages
The legal term for someone who commits a tort is ___. (228)
tortfeasor
The term for 2 or more individuals who commit a tort is ___. (228)
joint tortfeasors
The solution to the SOP/SOG dilemma lies not in renaming, but in ___. (228)
clearly defining the department’s expectations
____ is the biggest area of civil liability for fire departments, firefighters, and emergency medical personnel from an operational perspective. (229)
Negligence
At the heart of negligence is a consideration of what the ___ would have done under the circumstances. (229)
reasonably prudent person
