Negligence is a subset of tort law. Tort law deals with any issues where someone was hurt by the action of someone else. The action may not be criminal as recognized by the law, but it may be damaging to the individual.
Negligence is when a person is affected by actions that are deemed to be a result of carelessness. If a person is a victim of negligence, they are not responsible for the actions that have occurred. All liability will be placed on the accused person and the victim can make the accused pay for any damages incurred.
Prima Facie Negligence
To count as negligence, the disputed incident must have the following components:
- To count as negligence, the disputed incident must have the following components:
Example: A doctor administers a shot to a child.
- The defendant failed to use reasonable care.
Example: The doctor injects a used needle into the child.
- The defendant caused the plaintiff physical harm due to the failure.
Example: The child gets an infection.
- The physical harm created actual damage.
Example: The child goes to the hospital because of the infection.
- The initial incident is the proximate cause of negligence.
The initial incident is the proximate cause of negligence.
Negligence is caused without deliberate intent. If any intent is found, the incident becomes an intentional tort. Intentional tort works under different rules than negligence.
Reasonable Person Standard
A claim of negligence must determine if a person followed all reasonable actions–if they did, they are deemed to have acted like a reasonable person.
A reasonable person is deemed so by a combination of expectations of how a person should think and act. Negligence itself is not unreasonable. If it is found that a reasonable person would act like the defendant did, then the defendant is reasonable and not culpable. If a defendant is found to be negligent, they are not a reasonable person and thus acted outside the boundaries of expected behavior.
The proper conduct of a reasonable person should include:
- Risking their well-being to help others in emergency situations
- Considering precautions against all danger, both foreseeable and unforeseeable
- Taking all possible precautions
- Taking possibility of harm into account and what damage may result because of it
Reasonable Professional Standard
For medical malpractice (medical negligence), defendants are held to higher standards as reasonable medical professionals or health care providers. This is referred to as the medical standard of care. The standard of care of a medical professional/health care provider is the degree of care and skill that a reasonable and prudent health care provider would provide under the same or similar circumstances. In plain language, this means that it is considered a violation of the standard of care if a health care provider does something they shouldn’t do or fails to do something they should have done in the course of providing medical care to the patient.
A reasonable health care provider should:
- A reasonable health care provider should:
- Hold themselves to the standard of practice they should embody, regardless of experience;
- Behave reasonably according to all information available;
- Follow approved practice guidelines; and
- Follow all laws set forth for the standard of care.
Whether a lay person or a health care provider has acted reasonably under the circumstances can only be decided by a court or jury. Reasonable behavior is based not on laws, but on behavior. Because of this, the definition of reasonable behavior can change on a case by case basis. Thus, the definition of negligence can vary for each instance.
Are you a victim of medical negligence?
If you live in the Baltimore or Washington, D.C. areas and think you may have a case of medical negligence by a health care provider, contact the medical malpractice team at Stecco Law, P.C. You can schedule a free consultation, where we can review your case and begin offering you the help you need.
