TL;DR
- Duty of care is a key part of negligence law in Ontario and must be proven to recover compensation in a personal injury case.
- A claim requires four elements: duty of care, breach of that duty, causation, and damages.
- Duty of care means someone must act as a reasonable and prudent person would in the same situation.
- You must prove the breach directly caused your injuries or losses.
- Common liable parties include drivers, doctors, and property owners who fail to act responsibly and cause harm.
To recover compensation for your injuries in an Ontario injury case, your case will hinge on the legal concept of negligence. In other words, you must prove that the person that injured you owed you a duty of care and violated it. Only then will you have viable grounds for recovering damages.
General Negligence
Duty of care laws, also known as negligence laws, is the basic underpinning of personal injury lawsuits in Ontario. In order to recover damages, you will need to meet each of the elements of negligence:
- Duty of Care
- Breach of Duty
- Causation
- Damages
Duty of Care Definition
The legal obligation or duty of care one person maintains to another depends in large part on the fiduciary nature of the relationship between the two parties. Professional relationships, such as between a lawyer and client, or employer and employee, demand heightened diligence. These relationships establish a scope of responsibility that often involves statutory compliance. For example, two motorists owe a significantly different duty to each other compared to a doctor and a patient. The motorist is expected to take basic precautions for safety. The professional must maintain professional competence and supervision, and advise or warn the client or patient.
Generally speaking, however, duty of care laws requires a defendant (or wrongdoer) in an accident or injury case to adhere to a reasonable duty of careful conduct. The plaintiff must prove that the defendant committed a breach of that duty. This negligent breach must be the proximate and direct causation link of the harm or loss suffered by the plaintiff. The court must examine, determine, and evaluate the foreseeability test.
Whether or not a defendant acted reasonably is also subjective. Special duties may be imposed by contractual terms or tortious principles. Ontario courts consider the duty owed to be “the standard of careful conduct that would be expected of an ordinary, reasonable, and prudent person in the same circumstances.” The court will assess risk assessment and preventive measures to determine if the duty was sufficient to prevent the foreseeable injury. If liability is established, the court will compensate the damages and loss. The defendant must mitigate the loss.
Breach and Causation
It is not enough to prove to the court that there was a duty of law of care owed to you by the defendant. You must also show that the duty was breached and that the breach caused your damages. While similar, these theories are not entirely intertwined. A breach of duty of care can be anything from ignoring traffic laws to leaving a spilled drunk unattended on the floor.
Causation requires that the breach of the duty directly led to your injuries. It is not enough for duty to breached if there is no causal link between the breach and the damages you have suffered.
Damages
Finally, damages are a critical element of negligence. Even if someone breaches a duty to you, there is no right to recover if you have not been damaged. For example, it is obviously a breach of a duty to drive safely for another driver to run a red light and strike your car. But if the impact was so insignificant that you were not injured, you could not successfully bring an injury claim. In the end, all four elements must be met for a case to move forward.
Liable Parties Under Ontario Duty of Care Laws
It should come as no surprise that any party could potentially be liable in the right situation. We all owe duty of care to each other in various situations, and sometimes those duties are breached. Some of the most common instances of liability under duty of law of care include:
Drivers – There are a wide range of duties owed to others when you get behind the wheel of a car. Those duties of care extend to other drivers, roadside property owners, your own passengers, and pedestrians. Drivers that fail to follow the rules of the road are frequently liable in personal injury cases.
Doctors – Medical injuries happen every day. When they happen due to the negligent care of a medical professional, monetary recovery may be possible.
Property Owners – May property owners fail to notify their guests of natural hazards or clean up dangerous conditions in a timely manner. In Ontario, these property owners are likely in breach of their duty of care to anyone hurt under these conditions.
If you have any other questions regarding Ontario duty of care laws, an experienced personal injury lawyer can assess your situation and determine if you have a case.
