In the vast majority of cases, practitioners will have very little difficulty in identifying a person (or entity) who owed a duty of care to the claimant and who therefore, on the face of it, can be sued. Where liability is in issue, the argument often relates not to the existence or otherwise of a duty of care, but to whether the defendant has breached its duty of care.

For further guidance, see Practice Notes: Duty of care in personal injury claims and Breach of the duty of care in personal injury claims.

However, in some cases the practitioner will be required to address the question of whether the identified potential defendant owes a duty of care at all.

The purpose of this Practice Note is to pick out some broad principles from cases, while echoing the note of caution sounded by Lady Hale in the Supreme Court in the case of Woodland v Essex County Council:

'But the words used by judges in explaining why they are deciding as they do are not to be treated