Legal liability is the liability of a party imposed by a court for its actions or, in some cases, inactions, and for which the courts will award pecuniary damages as a form of redress. Negligence is the failure to exercise the required amount of care to prevent injury to others. For example, if you cause an accident that injures someone or damages their vehicle because you were driving at an unsafe speed, then you could be sued for negligence.
In some cases, the law imposes absolute liability (aka strict liability) on specific parties without regard to fault, and, therefore, obviates the need to prove fault in court. For instance, manufacturers are held strictly liable for defective products that they manufacture.
Sometimes, the law designates other parties as being responsible, whether they are or not. Imputed negligence results in vicarious liability, where the principal is responsible for the acts of his agents. For example, employers have vicarious liability for the actions of their employees
Most cases of negligence cannot be determined absolutely, for it depends on many factors. The main measure used to determine whether an act was negligent is to consider what a reasonably prudent person would do, given the age and knowledge of the tortfeasor, and other relevant factors.
Requirements for liability in the law of negligence
Before a court will award damages, the presumed negligence must satisfy 4 requirements:
1. there must be a legal duty to perform or to use reasonable care;
2. there must have been a failure to perform that duty;
3. the plaintiff must have suffered an injury or a loss;
4. and the negligent act must have been the proximate cause of the injury. The proximate cause is a cause that directly caused the loss or suffering so that if the proximate cause didn't happen, then the harm would not have happened.
All 4 elements of negligence must