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Short note: Liability and negligence

Short answer

Liability is the legal duty to compensate for harm, including civil, criminal, and professional. Negligence is a common tort where breach of duty of care causes damage; proving it requires duty, breach, causation, and injury. Engineers mitigate this by following codes and documenting work.

Write a short note on Liability and Negligence.

Liability

Liability is the legal obligation of a person to make good a loss or injury caused to another, or to face punishment. It can be:

  • Civil liability: compensation for loss (contract or tort).
  • Criminal liability: punishment (fine, imprisonment) for violating criminal law, e.g. death caused by gross neglect.
  • Contractual liability: failure to perform the contract terms.
  • Professional liability: breach of professional duty of care.
  • Vicarious liability: employer's liability for employee's acts.
  • Strict liability: responsibility without proof of fault, e.g. for hazardous activities.

Negligence

Negligence is the failure to exercise the care expected of a reasonable professional, resulting in damage to another. The injured party must prove: duty of care, breach, causation and damage. Engineering examples are faulty design, poor supervision, use of substandard materials, ignoring codes and failure to warn of risk.

Defences include contributory negligence of the claimant, acting within code and standards, and unforeseeable causes.

Relation

Negligence is a main source of professional liability. Engineers reduce it by keeping up to date, following codes, documenting decisions, getting professional indemnity insurance and working within their competence.

✓ Answer checked by Claude Opus 5.5 (high effort)

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