Negligence Case

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Identify & explain the elements of proof necessary for a plaintiff to prove a negligence case. “Four elements are essential to prove negligence: (1) a duty of care, (2) breach of that duty, (3) injury, and (4) causation” (Showalter, 2008, p. 47). The duty of care establishes the necessary link between the defendant and the plaintiff under the offense of negligence (Fitzgerald, 2011). The legal expectation of a duty of care is that the physician will provide care consistent with the level of training, skill, and competence of a physician in the same or similar circumstance. Thus an ophthalmologist is expected to act in accordance with the standards of practice and care of other similarly situated ophthalmologists. In other words, a person in a specific role has an obligation to members of the public. However, if a duty of care is not met, then the person responsible can be held accountable for allowing negligence to occur thus providing the basis for a lawsuit. In the conventional law of negligence, it is vital if a claim is to succeed that the defendant be in breach of a duty of care.…show more content…
A plaintiff must show that the injury was the ‘proximate cause’ of the negligence” (Showalter, 2008, p. 60). The law of negligence isn’t concerned with punishing people for their wrongdoing. It’s concerned with making people liable for the consequences of their actions (The Use of Proof in Negligence, 2010). The patient must prove that without the negligence, he/she wouldn’t have suffered the injury for which he/she is claiming. When there are multiple causes for a patient's medical condition in addition to the alleged negligence of the physician, then the patient's claim for medical negligence will succeed and may result in punitive damages if the alleged negligence of the physician can be proven to have materially contributed to the injury suffered by that

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