Tort law is a very prevalent aspect of conducting business and daily life in the twenty first century. According to the textbook, The Legal Environment of Business, tort law provides “remedies for the invasion of various protected interests.” (Cross & Miller, 2012) In this essay about tort law, I will talk about a tort case that has personally impacted me. To do so, I will provide a background of the event, apply facts of the case to applicable law, summarize lessons of the week as they relate to this case and provide a plausible argument for the parties involved. In the month of October 2011, two of my friends were exiting Fort Carson, Colorado and waited at a red light. The light turned to a green arrow and they proceeded into the …show more content…
The mental anguish that he has had to go through and the pain and suffering that he has had to endure are also grounds for compensatory damages. Chapter 12 also covers punitive damages. These damages are fines that the court may impose on the company or individual in an effort them for the neglect. The company will undoubtedly be sued for negligence. Chapter 12 section 5 states that “negligence occurs when someone suffers injury because of another’s failure to live up to a required duty of care.” (Cross & Miller, 2012) The duty of care that the driver had was to obey the traffic laws. He neglected to obey such laws which ended in an injury to the driver of the truck. There are four elements to negligence. These elements are duty of care, breach, causation and damages. Duty of Care - People are able to act freely, as long as their acts do not infringe on the rights of others. When a situation such as this accident occurs they neglect their duty of care. The driver of the dump truck had the duty of care to abide by the law and failed to do so by ignoring the red light. Breach – The driver breached his legal requirement to duty of care by failing to adhere to a red light. This breach is measured under a reasonable person standard in that any reasonable person in the same situation would have stopped at the red light rather than ignore it. A breach is simply a violation of a tort or law. Causation – Was the person’s injury caused by the
The driver has committed the tort of negligence and owes the employee a duty of care because he did not slow down due to the severe weather conditions. Indeed the defendant did breach the standard of care with poor judgement in this situation. A reasonable person in law does not have to be flawless to be held responsible for their actions.
A. A plaintiff who was injured as as result of some negligent conduct on the part of a defendant is entitled to recover compensation for such injury from that defendant.A plaintiff is entitled to a verdict if jury finds1. That a defendant was negligent, and2. That such negligence was a cause of injury to the plaintiff.
Negligence occurs when a citizen has suffered loss due to the carelessness of another. The first element of a negligence case is to find if the duty of care, the obligation of an individual to hold responsibility while performing any acts affecting others, is breached (Negligence and the Duty of Care, 2013). The Supreme Court of Queensland’s decision in May 2011, during the trial of French v QBE Insurance (Australia) Limited [2011] QSC 105 demonstrates how a taxi driver breached his duty of care and therefore, would be liable for the death of his passenger (Hamilton, 2011).
In most courts, if the defendant violates the statutory provisions of duty of care, the violation of laws and regulations will be considered negligence just as a car ran a red light is a violation of traffic rules. If a statute does not specify the duty of care, the court may determine relevant duty of care implicitly established in the legislature through the judicial interpretation. At the same time, even if a statute does not expressly or impliedly reflect legislative intent of the standard of care with certainty, the court can still invoke the provisions of the law to determine the standard of conduct of a reasonable person.
The tort reform battle started in the 1950’s with the insurance industry and their battles. Early on, they realized that they were in charge of the compensations for personal injury victims. This started a PR campaign of “targeting potential jurors through magazine ads.” They tried to attack lawsuits and jurors so they would vote against personal injury cases. Eventually, they moved towards the grassroots campaigns. They campaigned as regular Americans who were fed up with the justice and litigation systems. Today, advocates still fight these battles through the use of PR methods, “misleading reports, lobbying, and manufactured ‘grassroots’ organizations” (History. (2012). Retrieved June 27, 2016, from http://www.tortreformtruth.com/about-tort-reform/history/).
When it comes to Tort Reform I am NOT all for this law. I think that individuals have the right to compensation for life if they have sustained life lasting injuries. However, it has been stated per http://www.hg.org/article that Tort Reform doesn’t involve a single law. Torts are known to be the “essence of legal wrongs that infringe the rights of another that leads to some form of civil liability” each tort reform law is different but share the same goal. For example:
The following tort cases, Pearson v. Chung and Liebeck v. McDonalds, have been a pinnacle “poster child” for tort reform in the United States. In 2002, frivolous lawsuits cost taxpayers over $233 billion (Insideprison.com, 2006). What is considered a frivolous lawsuit? It is when an attorney
You have asked me to determine whether our client Diana Lewis committed unauthorized practice of law by providing her services. I have done research on statutes and cases. This memorandum will address the issue of this case, California Bar’s claim, and Ms. Lewis’s possible defense.
This legal fiction is used as the standard against which an actual defendant is held. if the actions of the defendant fall below what would have been expected of the reasonable prudent person, then the defendant has breached the duty of care.
he Tort Law is a civil injury or wrongful act that is committed against another person or property resulting in harm and his compensated by money damages. To sue for a tort a person must have suffered a mental or physical injury that was caused by the physician or the physician's employee. The tort reform is a "group of ideas and laws designed to change the way or civl justice system works." The tort reform movement was started in 1970 and headed up by insurance companies and large corporations in which to attack the civil justice system and change laws not by case by case but by legislation.
With this, the existence of a duty of care has been proven and is now time to see if it has been breached. It is up to Arthur to show Bill has breached the duty . To do so he will need to prove a reasonable man would have not acted in the same way. The test is objective in a sense that Bill’s skill would not be considered in favour of those of a man who is “presumed to be free both from over-apprehension and from over-confidence” . Bill ignored a warning saying no HGVs should be crossing the bridge, it can be argued that no reasonable person would do this.
Negligence has a particular meaning that the failure to take the sound care that is expected from the other person. Abuse of the traffic regulations is indication that makes negligence evident. In a number of states, the suffered individual may not bet back damages, in case, he or she has also been showing a sense of guilt, even in the least degree. It is a behavior by the claimant that leads to the personal injuries happened as a result of the defendant's negligence. These are nuts and bolts in the
The plaintiff must prove they suffered loss which was caused by defendant’s negligence. Jane and Tom suffered an economic loss of $10,000 and $2,500 respectively. Damages occurred when both the parties invested in recommendations made by the defendant. Damages from Grampian shares wouldn’t have incurred had Phillip kept himself well-informed of the financial fluctuations of the previous month. However, Phillip couldn’t have foreseen the weather changes that deteriorated the price of Olivia Ltd.’s shares.
There may be higher duties of care depending on the status of the liable party. A commercial truck driver and physician have special duties of care as do business owners in slip and fall or premises liability cases.
In any given case, if a reasonable man could have foreseen the consequences then a duty of care may be owed; whether it has actually arisen or not depends on the facts. The duty may be restricted or ignored completely in the following circumstances.