What Does Duty of Care Mean in Personal Injury Law?

What is a Duty of Care?

A duty of care is a legal obligation that one party owes to another to avoid foreseeable harm or damage. Individuals and organizations are responsible for exercising reasonable care to prevent harm to others. Almost everyone has a duty of care to other people, but a duty can be explicit and more stringent in certain circumstances when a relationship is established.

Examples of duty of care:

• You are a pedestrian crossing a busy intersection while you have the walking light giving you the right of way. Drivers and other road users owe you a duty of care to obey traffic laws like stopping at the red light to allow you to cross safely.
• You are invited to a dinner party at your new neighbor’s home. The house is still somewhat under construction, and several of the floorboards on the staircase are loose. Your neighbor has a duty to prevent an injury by informing you of the hazardous staircase, sectioning off the dangerous area, or warning you in some other way.
• You are at the doctor’s office with complaints about a sore throat, fever, and nausea. Your doctor diagnoses you with strep throat and prescribes you antibiotics. Your doctor owes you a duty of care and should check your chart and history to ensure you are not allergic to the medication before issuing the prescription.

In each of these instances, a duty of care is owed based on the relationship between you and the other party, as well as the circumstances, like being invited into your neighbor’s home versus if you were trespassing. In this example, your neighbor does not have a duty of care to warn you about a broken staircase or rope off the area since you are on the property unlawfully, and the owner-visitor relationship is not established.

How Does Duty of Care Impact Personal Injury Law?

Duty of care is a fundamental principle of personal injury law and plays an important role in establishing negligence and, therefore, liability during a claim or lawsuit. When an individual or entity breaches a duty of care and causes an accident and injuries, they can be held responsible for the resulting damages.

When establishing negligence, you must first prove that a duty of care exists in the first place, that the defendant breached the duty, that the breach of duty directly caused your injuries, and that you sustained compensable damages as a result.

To learn more about your legal rights and options during your personal injury case, reach out to an experienced attorney today.