Negligence

Read this section. Have you ever been around someone who is being careless and ends up breaking something? If you become angry with them, they might answer that they didn't do it on purpose. Even so, the tort of negligence tells us that even when a person does not commit wrongs on purpose, he or she still may be held accountable if that person did not exercise proper care. The standard used in judging this is to ask what any reasonable person would do in the same situation.

Familiarize yourself with the elements of negligence. If all of the elements of negligence are met, then it becomes necessary to determine what the damages were. There are defenses to a charge of negligence. Be sure to do the exercises at the end of the section, in which you will determine tort liability by applying elements of negligence law to hypothetical scenarios.