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In Australian law, negligence has been developed as a distinct concept intended to achieve various purposes. In law negligence means a person’s failure to take proper and reasonable care when doing something, which causes damage or injury to another. The law of negligence seeks to protect individuals who become victims of others’ negligent or thoughtless behaviour. However, much debate has arisen in relation to the appropriateness of law of negligence which ultimately leads to a culture of blame and greed. Nevertheless, the courts have in many cases taken a sympathetic approach towards the plaintiffs considering that it is the insurance companies that ultimately bear the loss. However, in our law, negligence has been developed as a distinct concept to achieve several objectives. The first objective the law of negligence seeks to achieve is to provide fair and just compensation to the persons who have suffered loss as a result of negligent behaviour of someone else. Compensation seeks to restore the affected persons to the position prior to the damage or injury. Second, it discourages negligent or harmful conduct, acting as a deterrent. When people know that they will be held liable and be required to pay damages to those who are affected by their conduct, people may act more carefully and diligently and may even avoid undertaking unnecessary risks. However, achieving this objective may not be possible where no fault schemes are operating, for instance workers compensation schemes in Queensland. Third, it enables fair allocation of responsibility among the wrongdoers. This is based on the principle that the individuals should take responsibility for their actions. In no fault schemes however, the responsibility is transferred to the society at large, on the belief that it is ultimately the society which should accept responsibility to care for the individuals, irrespective of who is at fault.
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