Standard of care - sustany/dvg GitHub Wiki

Standard of care is an essential concept in determining whether a person was negligent and potentially liable for a tort. If a person breaches the standard that applies to them and their actions cause harm to another person, they will be liable for negligence.�

The standard of care usually revolves around the concept of the reasonable person standard: whether someone acted with care as the average person would have in those circumstances. In some circumstances, the concept applies very easily. For example, a reasonable person would not drive after taking medication that causes hallucinations for half the people that take the medication. If a person were to drive under those circumstances, they would have breached the standard of care. In other cases, the situations are harder to determine. If a person took medication that causes hallucinations for 1 in 1,000 people, the reasonable person arguably may or may not drive under those circumstances.�

In most cases, the standard of care is just that of the reasonable person, but in some cases, a different standard will apply. Children receive a lower standard of care than an adult based on how a reasonable child of the same age would act. Higher or broader standards of care apply to professionals and people of authority. For example, a doctor will be evaluated under the reasonable standard of a doctor for their medical work. This differentiation is necessary because a doctor or lawyer would get away with many things if held to the standards of an average person.�