4.1 The Tort of Negligence

2026 Syllabus Objectives

By the end of this topic, you should be able to:

  • Explain the nature of liability in negligence, including personal, vicarious and joint liability
  • Describe and apply the duty of care, including the neighbour principle and the Caparo three-part test
  • Explain the role of policy considerations in deciding whether a duty of care exists
  • Define and apply breach of duty, including the objective standard of care and how it changes for different types of defendant
  • Explain causation and remoteness of damage, including factual and legal causation, multiple causes, intervening acts, and the test for remoteness
  • Explain novel duty situations, including pure economic loss, negligent misstatement, nervous shock, and possible reforms
  • Reflect on key concepts such as duty, liability, justice, fairness, power and its limits, effectiveness and certainty

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What is a Tort?

A tort (pronounced "tort") is a civil wrong — something one person does (or fails to do) that causes harm to another person. Unlike criminal law, where the state punishes wrongdoers, tort law allows the victim to sue the person who caused them harm and claim compensation (money to make up for what was lost or suffered).

Negligence is one of the most important torts. It happens when someone fails to take reasonable care, and as a result someone else is harmed.

To win a negligence claim, the claimant (the person who was harmed) must prove three things:

  1. The defendant owed them a duty of care
  2. The defendant breached (broke) that duty
  3. The breach caused the claimant's damage, and the damage was not too remote

4.1.1 Nature of Liability in Negligence

Liability means being legally responsible for something. In negligence, there are three types of liability:

Personal Liability

This is the most straightforward type. A person is personally liable when they themselves did the careless act that caused harm.

Example: A driver who runs a red light and injures a pedestrian is personally liable. They were the one driving carelessly.

Personal liability is based on the idea that you should be responsible for your own actions and their consequences.

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