Negligence

Question 1

What is negligence?

Answer 1

unintentional conduct that causes injury

Question 2

What are the five elements of negligence?

Answer 2

duty of care, breach of duty, causation in fact, proximate cause, and injury

Question 3

What is duty of care?

Answer 3

every person has a duty to use reasonable care and skill to avoid injuring others, a person has no duty to keep strangers safe

Question 4

What is breach of duty?

Answer 4

unreasonable behavior constitutes a breach of duty to ordinary care

Question 5

What is causation in fact?

Answer 5

failure to use reasonable care must actually cause the injury, for the defendant’s conduct, the plaintiff would not be injured

Question 6

What is proximate cause?

Answer 6

if the injury was not foreseeable to the defendant, there is no proximate cause, the conduct that caused harm must be sufficiently related to the injury, conduct may be the cause of an injury but not the proximate cause

Question 7

What are the damages for negligence?

Answer 7

compensatory (medical expenses, economic losses, pain and suffering), punitive (intentional torts)

Question 8

What is comparative negligence?

Answer 8

plaintiff contributes to an injury, percentage of fault attributed to plaintiff, and the damages are reduced by that percentage

Question 9

What is the assumption of risk?

Answer 9

plaintiff knowingly and willingly undertakes a dangerous activity (skydiving for example)