Category Archives: Negligence
‘No assumption of responsibility after release from police custody: Dobson v Leicestershire Police’
In the tragic case of Dobson v Chief Constable of Leicestershire Police [2025] EWHC 272 (KB), HHJ Bird examined whether the police had assumed responsibility for the wellbeing of a person released from custody. The court held that there was no assumption of responsibility, and the claim failed. Alexander Cornelius, pupil barrister at 12KBW, analyses […]
Emad Atiq, ‘The Disaggregated Hand Formula’
ABSTRACT Commercial activities, like selling a car or serving hot coffee, can generate a risk of loss to which multiple individuals are exposed. Likewise, the burdens of avoiding such risks are rarely borne by a single person. When burdens and losses distribute across multiple stakeholders, when should negligence law tolerate or condemn the risky choice? […]
Christopher Jaeger, ‘The Hand Formula’s Unequal Inputs’
ABSTRACT Tort cases often hinge on whether the defendant behaved ‘unreasonably’. Tort theorists have long debated what makes behavior unreasonable, with many seeking answers in economic theory or Kantian philosophy. But the question of whether a tort defendant’s conduct was reasonable or unreasonable is typically a question for the jury. And we know very little […]
Matthew Leitch, ‘Accidents, Crises, and Events in the Supreme Court: Paul v Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust’
ABSTRACT In Paul v Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, the Supreme Court held that a secondary victim cannot recover damages for psychiatric harm caused by witnessing a primary victim’s medical crisis. This note examines the ratio of the majority’s judgment, that the secondary victim must witness an accident (or its immediate aftermath) to successfully recover damages. […]
Ronen Perry, ‘Harmful Precautions’
INTRODUCTION According to the conventional definition of reasonableness, commonly known as the Hand formula, a person acts unreasonably (hence negligently) toward another if they fail to take precautions whose cost for the actor is lower than the expected loss for the other that these precautions can prevent. While law-and-economics theorists have advocated and courts have […]
‘How Tort Law Thwarts the Fight Against Biased Healthcare’
Maytal Gilboa, ‘Biased but Reasonable: Bias Under the Cover of Standard of Care’, 75 Georgia Law Review 489 (2023). Healthcare settings have long been sites where minoritized patients have needed to fight to receive adequate quality of care. The recent debates about physicians not wearing masks in hospitals and clinics to protect immunocompromised and vulnerable […]
Duncan Wallace, ‘The Reality of Shareholder Ownership: For-profit Corporations as Slaves’
ABSTRACT What is the relationship between shareholders and the corporation? The present scholarly consensus is that, whatever the relationship is, it is not one of owner and owned. This article contests that consensus. It argues that corporations are owned by their shareholders and, further, that corporations so-owned are slaves. In support of this contention, the […]
Omri Ben-Shahar, ‘Safety Score Liability’
ABSTRACT Data technology is increasingly deployed to assign safety scores to people and products. Could these scores be used by tort law to apportion liability for accidents? Instead of basing tort liability on negligence – on the level of care leading to the specific accident – ‘safety score liability’ would impose liability commensurate with a […]
Anthony Sangiuliano, ‘Paediatricians’ Liability to Patients’ Parents for Negligent Genetic Testing’
ABSTRACT The Ontario Superior Court of Justice has recently held that a paediatrician might owe a duty of care to a patient’s parents when performing genetic testing on the patient and communicating test results to the parents. The parents may be able to claim damages against the paediatrician for breach of this duty if, in […]
Megalla and others, ‘A Comprehensive Analysis of Malpractice Claims Following Management of Hip Fractures’
ABSTRACT Background: Hip fractures are highly prevalent and associated with significant morbidity and mortality. As a result, orthopedic surgeons treating these patients may find themselves subject to malpractice claims. Therefore, this study aimed to provide a comprehensive analysis of malpractice claims related to hip fractures. Materials and Methods: The Westlaw legal database was queried for […]