 This is William Chow. Welcome to Negligence Torts and Professional Liability, Module 3B, Part A. In this part, we'll do an overview of the different elements of a negligence tort, and also look at some special considerations in applying negligence tort to professionals. Before we focus in detail on negligence tort, let's take a step back for a moment and ask the general question. When can we make someone else legally liable for a harm or loss that we have suffered? In a previous module, we've looked at contracts, specifically how contracts are formed, and once they are formed, how a breach of contract occurs. So that's when someone that we have a contract with has failed to perform one or more terms of that contract. So if there is a breach of contract, the other party, the innocent party, has a right to sue for the losses or damages that arise from that breach of contract. Also in a previous module, we looked at intentional torts. That's where someone has intentionally committed an act that has caused harm, and the victim of that harm has a right to sue for the value of that loss or harm. In this module, we'll look at negligence tort where someone has accidentally committed an act that has caused harm. Let's now do a quick quiz to make sure you have a clear understanding of the difference between a negligence tort and an intentional tort. On the left-hand side of this chart is a list of different events. What I'd like you to do is try to identify whether each of these events is a negligence tort or an intentional tort. So please pause this video at this time to attempt these questions. The first event is punching a person out of anger. So that's an intentional act. So that's considered to be an intentional tort, which would be specifically the tort of battery. The second event, rear-ending another car because you weren't watching traffic. There you caused the rear-ending accidentally. It was caused by your carelessness. So that is considered to be a negligence tort. The third event, failing to leave someone's premises after being told to do so. So that is an intentional tort. You intentionally fail to leave the premises and that specifically is considered to be the tort of trespass. The next event is spreading false rumors about a comparator's product. So again, that's an intentional act and that's an intentional tort, which is called injurious falsehood. And the last one, an accountant misreading tax legislation and giving wrong advice to a client. And that would be negligence. The accountant accidentally misread tax legislation. The account did not intentionally give wrong advice. So that is considered to be a tort of negligence. In this module, we'll look at all the different elements of a negligence tort. The first element that we need is called duty of care. The question there that we need to determine is, am I obligated to you to act carefully? Do I have an obligation to act carefully towards you? In other words, if the answer is yes, there is a duty to act carefully. The next element we look at is standard of care. The question there is, did I act carefully enough or how careful do I need to be? So if there is a breach of standard of care, meaning that the person did not act carefully enough, in other words, they were negligent, the next element we look at is causation of harm. The general question we ask there is, did my carelessness cause the injury or loss? If there is causation of harm, the last thing we look at is defenses. So the issue that we examine there is whether or not the victim, the person who is the plaintiff, the person who started the lawsuit, whether or not that victim should be partly or wholly responsible for the loss or injury, like did the plaintiff do something to actually cause that harm or loss? A particular class of people who is often sued for negligence is professionals. Professionals may include people such as doctors, lawyers, accountants, engineers, and financial advisors. Professionals may be sued for negligence by their own clients, but also by people who are not their clients at all. The courts have developed special rules for professionals in applying negligence towards rules regarding the determination of a duty of care for statements made by professionals, and also rules regarding the appropriate standard of care to apply for professionals. We'll look at those special rules in detail. The thing to keep in mind with professionals is that most of them are required by their governing body to have liability insurance. For example, CPAs are required to participate in the Chartered Professional Accountants Professional Liability Insurance Program.