Duty Of Care: Negligence And Obligation

The term Duty of Care is a legal term from tort law where a person is under obligation to act towards others with proper caution to prevent injury or harm. Where a reasonable standard of care was not followed and injury or harm resulted the person is considered to have been negligent and a lawsuit against them can be filed with a claim for any losses or damages that were incurred.

This is an important aspect of being a teacher, and the professional responsibility that goes with it. What this means is that in a position of responsibility for the care of others the teacher is under a legal obligation covered by tort law to provide reasonable care to protect others from harm and if this standard of reasonable care is not provided it might be considered that the teacher has …show more content…
Duty of Care is understood to be a reasonable expectation of care towards the safety of others, especially where there is an established responsibility for this under professional circumstances. failure to do this is negligence. A good definition of negligence comes from the online legal dictionary:

"Conduct that falls below the standards of behavior established by law for the protection of others against unreasonable risk of harm. A person has acted negligently if he or she has departed from the conduct expected of a reasonably prudent person acting under similar circumstances."

Negligence differs from an intended injury like Assault and Battery. It is a failure to protect rather than a planed injury. It is important for a teacher to be fully aware of the implications of Duty of Care and negligence, not only to avoid the resultant lawsuit for breech of Duty but also because it is important to develop and institute a mature and proper awareness of responsibility towards others so as to maintain professional standards of practice and to set an example of professional behaviour in order to maintain the respect due the teaching