Negligence is a form of tort law where a person or entity is alleged to have caused harm as a result of their carelessness. Negligence is defined as a failure to use the degree of care that a reasonably sensible person would have used in the same scenario. The assumption is that people should act with care in order to avoid causing foreseeable harm to others. Negligence cases can be quite subjective and require the plaintiff to prove four elements in order to recover for their damages. Those elements are the duty owed, duty breached, proximate cause, and damages. This lecture will discuss each of the four in greater detail. The first element that a plaintiff must establish is the defendant’s duty of care. This is the responsibility that the defendant has to the plaintiff based on the specific circumstances surrounding the event that caused damages. For instance, a homeowner might have a duty to warn visitors about any hazardous conditions on his property. After determining the duty of care, a plaintiff must then prove that the defendant breached a duty that was owed to him. Using our earlier scenario, a property owner might breach this duty by failing to advise guests about a broken porch step. Factors to consider include whether or not the homeowner himself should have reasonably known of the dangerous situation or whether the condition was so obvious that even the plaintiff himself should have noticed it. In order for a defendant to be considered liable, the plaintiff must next show that the damages he suffered were directly caused by the defendant’s negligence. For example, if the plaintiff were standing on a different porch step entirely and fell because he was intoxicated, his injury could not be attributed to the negligent acts of the homeowner. If, however, both factors (the faulty step and the intoxication) were found to have contributed to the plaintiff’s injury, both parties might be considered negligent to the extent that they played a part in the plaintiff’s injury. If it is determined that the defendant was negligent, the final element that must be established is the plaintiff’s damages. Damages could include medical bills, lost wages, property damage, or even punitive damages designed to punish the defendant. By successfully proving each of these four elements, a plaintiff should receive a favorable verdict from the jury. When it is clear that one of these elements could be almost impossible to prove, a defendant can request a summary judgment to have the judge dismiss the case before it goes to trial. In any case, the outcome relies heavily on not only the facts of the case, but also the ability of each party to prove them.