Negligence

Question 1

What is Negligence

Answer 1

Injury or damage caused by careless behaviour

Question 2

Evaluation point 1 - Judicial Law making

Answer 2

• Donoghue v Stevenson opened the floodgates which opened up a lot of people making cases
• deeply rooted in common law,
• judges make decisions, incorrect verdicts based on their opinions, undemocratic (sep of powers)
• should be left to parliament

Question 3

What did Lord Bridge say on negligence

Answer 3

• should develop on incremental basis rather than assuming it exists everywhere

Question 4

Evaluation point 2 - Reforms

Answer 4

• Idea to impose a no fault system for personal injury
• Canada where everyone is compensated rather than proving who’s wrong
• Lawyers less work
• More ADR (can be expensive)
• 2002 suggested no fault in medical cases, never implemented
• Would of reduced num of cases in court/NHS spending fees

Question 5

Evaluation Point 3 - Breach of Doc

Answer 5

• Objective (reasonable man test) is this fair?
• Courts criticised for protecting doctors (Bolam v Friern Hospital)

Question 6

Key cases

Answer 6

Dononghue v Stevenson
Lord Bridge
2002 - no fault in medical cases
Bolam v Friern Hospital