Duty of care

A duty of care is a legal obligation to take reasonable care to avoid causing harm to people who could foreseeably be affected by your actions.

Every road user owes this duty to everyone else on the road, whether they are another driver, a passenger, a cyclist or a pedestrian, simply by being on the road together. It is rarely disputed on its own in a motor accident case, since the existence of the duty is well established; what is usually argued over is whether it was breached.

Establishing the duty is the first of the three elements a negligence claim needs, followed by breach and then causation of the actual harm.

Who is at fault explains how these elements are proven together.