What Is Negligence In A Legal Context?
Legally speaking, negligence is when someone doesn’t take the care that most people would in a similar situation, and because of that, someone else gets hurt. It’s not about someone setting out to cause harm on purpose, but instead, about making a mistake, being careless, or not paying enough attention, which then leads to an accident or injury.
Negligence is a key part of personal injury law. If you’re ever hurt in an accident, chances are your case will involve proving that someone else was negligent. This is the foundation for most claims where people are seeking compensation for injuries, whether it’s a car crash, a slip and fall, or a mistake made by a doctor.
When someone is injured (the plaintiff), they can file a lawsuit against the person or company they believe is responsible (the defendant). The court will then look at the facts, decide if the defendant was negligent, and if so, figure out the extent of compensation the plaintiff is entitled to for their injuries.
But negligence law isn’t just about money. It’s also about encouraging everyone to act responsibly, look out for each other, and respect the safety and dignity of others. By holding people accountable for careless behaviour, the law helps make our communities safer for everyone.
Ultimately, negligence is the failure to exercise the care that a reasonably prudent and careful person would exercise in the circumstances. In other words, the defendant created an unreasonable risk that caused harm to the plaintiff. To pursue legal action and be successful in negligence, the claimant (the injured person making the claim) must demonstrate:
1. Duty Of Care
This means the defendant had a responsibility to be careful. The law recognizes certain relationships where people owe each other a duty of care. For example, drivers owe a duty to other people on the road to drive safely. Store owners owe a duty to their customers to keep the premises safe. Doctors owe their patients a duty to provide competent medical care.
In other words, if it’s reasonable to expect that someone’s actions (or lack of action) could hurt someone else, the law will often say they had a duty to be careful.
2. Breach Of Duty
When someone has failed at fulfilling that duty, it’s called a breach. In medical cases, a doctor might have made a mistake that another careful doctor of the same specialty and training wouldn’t have made. The key question is: Did the person do something (or fail to do something) that a reasonable person in the same circumstances would have done differently?
3. Damage
To have a negligence case, you must have suffered some kind of harm. This could be a physical injury, like a broken arm or a concussion. It could also be emotional distress, lost wages from missing work, or even pain and suffering. The law only compensates for harm that can be measured or described, so you need to show that you were hurt in some way.
4. Causation
You also need to show that the defendant’s carelessness actually caused your injury. This means connecting the dots between what the defendant did (or didn’t do) and the harm you suffered. If you slipped on a wet floor, you’d have to show that the store’s failure to clean up or warn you about the spill directly led to your fall. Something to note here is that you don’t have to prove the person meant to hurt you, just that their actions (or inaction) were the reason you got hurt.
5. Remoteness
Finally, the harm you suffered has to be closely connected to the defendant’s actions. The law doesn’t hold people responsible for every possible consequence of their actions, only the ones that were reasonably foreseeable. If someone’s carelessness leads to an injury that could have been predicted, they can be held responsible. But if something totally unexpected happens, the law might say it’s too remote to count. In court, the person bringing the claim has to show that it’s more likely than not that all these elements are met.
What Is Malpractice?
Malpractice is a special kind of negligence that happens in professional settings, most often in healthcare. When we talk about medical malpractice, we’re talking about situations where a doctor, nurse, or other healthcare provider didn’t give the level of care that’s expected in their profession, and as a result, a patient was harmed.
Malpractice can happen in lots of ways. Some examples include:
- A doctor making a mistake during surgery
- A nurse giving the wrong medication or the wrong dose
- Failing to diagnose a serious illness in a reasonable amount of time
- Not monitoring a patient’s condition closely enough
However, it’s not just doctors and nurses who can be sued for malpractice. Dentists, pharmacists, and even hospitals can be held responsible if their actions fall below the professional standard of care. You can also explore the Appeal Court Judgement on Causation in Medical Malpractice to better understand the legal complexities involved.
Key Differences Between Malpractice And Negligence
When examining the difference between regular negligence and malpractice, there are some important nuances to understand.
Firstly, negligence happens when a healthcare professional fails to provide the level of care that is reasonably expected in their field, resulting in harm to a patient. This can be due to mistakes, oversights, or not recognizing important details, even if the harm was not intentional. But the important thing here is that it was not an intentional act.
Medical malpractice, on the other hand, is when the healthcare professional knowingly follows through with a negligent act or disregards the standard of care entirely, putting the individual in harm’s way intentionally. Malpractice claims follow the same criteria as regular negligence, as listed above (duty of care, breach, causal connection, actual loss), and in this sense are similar.
It’s also worth noting that physicians have a different “standard” of care than a reasonable average person whose conduct must be judged. This is because they are professionals who have a duty to conduct their medical practice in accordance with a prudent and diligent doctor in the same circumstances. This standard applies to other professionals, such as nurses.
Therefore, generally speaking, if a physician acts in accordance with a recognized and respectable practice of the profession, they may not be found to be negligent. On the other hand, if the plaintiff can establish that the defendant physician acted unreasonably when compared to similar medical professionals, they may have acted negligently.
Why This Distinction Matters In Your Case
It’s important to know whether your case is about negligence or malpractice because the rules and requirements can vary between the two. For example, medical malpractice cases often require expert testimony and have special deadlines for filing a claim.
If you were hurt by a doctor’s mistake, you will usually be making a malpractice claim based on negligence. If the doctor did something to you without your consent, it might be a battery claim (battery in the medical context occurs when a medical procedure is performed without the patient’s consent, or when the medical treatment goes beyond the scope of the consent given). Knowing which type of claim fits your situation helps you and your lawyer figure out the best way to move forward.
It’s also generally easier to prove negligence than malpractice, because you only have to prove that they were careless. Malpractice cases can also include claims for wrongful death if a loved one died because of a preventable medical mistake.
What If You’re Not Sure Which One Applies?
If you’re not sure whether your case is negligence, medical malpractice, or something else, you’re not alone. These cases can be complicated, and it’s not always obvious what kind of claim you have.The legal team at Wagners Law have experience in medical negligence claims, can help you determine if the medical care you received can be considered medical negligence, and can assist you in developing your malpractice case. For an injury lawyer in Halifax, call Wagners Law at (902) 425-7330 for your free consultation today.