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How do you define negligence in law? For negligence to be complete the connection between the harm occurred and the defendant’s breach of care must be shown. If somebody asks you to define negligence in law, your answer would basically be that it is a failure on the part of one person to exercise proper care, resulting in a foreseeable harm to another. However, as essential elements in the definition of negligence, the plaintiff must show that the defendant owed a duty of care to the plaintiff, the duty was breeched, the plaintiff suffered harm and the harm was a consequence of the breech. At common law, this connection, which is defined as “the causal relationship between conduct and result” is called causation. The connection between the harm and the breech is one of the fundenemtal elements in the test of negligence. In certain situations causation will be the entire test. For example, in the case of product liability, all that the plaintiff is required to show is that the product caused the harm to the plaintiff. It is not necessary for the plaintiff to establish in the court that the manufacturers had a pre-existing duty of care towards the plaintiff and that duty of care was breeched. The causation as an essential element in negligence law in Australia was established after the decision of the High Court in March v Stramare (E & MH) Pty Ltd (1991) 171 CLR 506. In Medin v State Government Insurance Commission (1995) 182 CLR 1, Chappel v Hart (1998) 195 CLR 232 , Roads and Traffic Authority v Royal (2008) 245 ALR 653 and Tavell v Gett (2010) 240 CLR 537 are a few other recent cases where the High court considered the importance of causation in relation to law of negligence. In the Medin case, the High Court held that the question “whether the defendant’s wrongful act or omission is as a matter of common sense and experience, properly to be seen as having caused the relevant loss or damage” should be considered to determine whether there is a casual connection between the harm and the breech of duty of care.
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