Duty of care in personal injury claims

Copyright © 2025 LexisNexis
Published by a LexisNexis PI & Clinical Negligence expert
Practice notes

Duty of care in personal injury claims

Copyright © 2025 LexisNexis

Published by a LexisNexis PI & Clinical Negligence expert

Practice notes
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This Practice Note will consider the common law duty of care. For information on statutory duties, see Practice Note: breach of statutory duty and the overlap with the common law.

For breach of duty of care, see Practice Note: Breach of the duty of care in personal injury claims.

For guidance on vicarious liability, see Practice Notes: Nature and operation of vicarious liability, Scope and impact of vicarious liability and Vicarious liability in the course of employment—the close connection test.

For information on the duty of care in clinical negligence claims, see Practice Note: Duty of care and breach in clinical negligence claims.

For a claimant to succeed in proving their claim in common law negligence they must first prove that the defendant owed them a duty of care.

Examples of established relationships

When assessing whether a duty of care exists, the court will consider whether there is an established precedent for the relationship between the parties and follow the precedents unless it is necessary to consider whether they should be departed

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Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom
Key definition:
Duty of care definition
What does Duty of care mean?

A duty of care refers to the circumstances and relationships giving rise to an obligation upon a defendant to take proper care to avoid causing some form of foreseeable harm to the claimant in all the circumstances of the case in question.

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