The “Duty of Care” in a California Personal Injury Case

In California, the “duty of care” refers to the legal obligation to use reasonable care to avoid injuring others. In order to prevail in a California personal injury case, you must show that the defendant owed you a duty of care, they breached that duty, and you were injured as a result.¹

Here are five key things to know:

1. A duty of care is most often created by a federal, California, local, or administrative law, or by a federal or California state court decision (“common law”).
2. California law requires each person to exercise “ordinary care or skill in the management of his or her property or person.”²
3. Some people owe a special duty of care to others because of the nature of their relationship, such as teachers to students or doctors to patients.
4. When determining what kind of duty of care exists, judges look at several factors including the foreseeability of harm to you, the policy of preventing future harm, and the burden on the defendant.
5. Common evidence in these cases includes expert testimony about the skill and knowledge required in a particular profession.

To help you better understand “duty of care” in a California personal injury case, our California personal injury lawyers discuss, below:

• 1. What is a “duty of care”?
• 2. What are some common examples?
• 3. How do courts determine whether a duty exists?
• 4. When is a duty breached?

You may also wish to see our articles on strict liability, negligence, gross negligence, recklessness and intentional torts in California.

1. What is a “duty of care”?

There is no specific legal definition of “duty of care” in California. The California Supreme Court has embraced the idea that people are legally obligated to prevent foreseeable harm to others when it is reasonable for them to do so.³

Sometimes, a specific duty of care is outlined in a federal, California or local statute. For instance, doctors and other medical professionals have a legal duty to use reasonable skill, knowledge, and care in diagnosing and treating illness and injuries.⁴

Though even where there is no special duty of care, California law imposes a general duty of care. This obligation is set forth in California Civil Code section 1714(a), which provides in part:

“Everyone is responsible, not only for the result of his or her willful acts, but also for an injury occasioned to another by his or her want of ordinary care or skill in the management of his or her property or person, except so far as the latter has, willfully or by want of ordinary care, brought the injury upon himself or herself.”

2. What are some common examples?

Examples of common duties of care in California include (but are not limited to):

• The duty of drivers to obey traffic laws so as to avoid car accidents and injuries to pedestrians and injuries to motorcyclists;⁵
• The duty of manufacturers to use reasonable care to avoid producing a dangerous product;⁶
• The duty of a property owner to maintain premises in a safe condition in order to avoid slip-and-fall accidents and or other premises liability;⁷
• The duty of medical professionals to use reasonable skill, knowledge, and care in diagnosing and treating illness and injuries and avoid medical malpractice;⁸
• The duty not to publish false “facts” about someone (defamation);⁹ and
• The duty of an employer not to hire someone who might pose a danger to customers or other employees.¹⁰

3. How do courts determine whether a duty of care exists?

Whether a duty of care exists in a given case is a question of law for a judge to decide.

Once the judge has set forth the standard, whether a party’s conduct has conformed to the standard is a question of fact for the jury (or, in a bench trial, the judge).¹¹

The California Supreme Court has set forth a number of factors that a court should consider in deciding whether the defendant owed a duty of care to you:

• The foreseeability of harm to you;
• The degree of certainty that you suffered injury;
• The closeness of the connection between the defendant’s conduct and your injury;
• The moral blame attached to the defendant’s conduct;
• The policy of preventing future harm;
• The extent of the burden to the defendant;
• The consequences to the community of imposing a duty to exercise care with resulting liability for breach; and
• The availability, cost, and prevalence of insurance for the risk involved.¹²

4. When is a duty breached?

Once the judge has determined that there is a duty of care, it is the jury’s job to apply the facts of the case to the standard the judge sets forth.

Factors the jury may base its decision on include (but are not limited to):

• Expert testimony about the skill and knowledge required in a particular profession;
• Expert testimony about the skill and knowledge used by the defendant;
• Accident reconstruction experts;
• Testimony about custom and practice within a particular industry or group of people;¹³ and
• Whether the defendant could have reasonably foreseen the risk or injury resulting from their conduct.¹⁴

Example: Roger is driving a big rig delivering furniture for ABC Company. Roger fails to secure the load. While cruising down the 110 Freeway, several coffee tables and sofas fall out the back of the truck onto the freeway. Tammy swerves to avoid the road debris, causing her to spin out, flip her car and sustain major injuries. In a lawsuit for an accident caused by road debris, a jury is likely to find that Roger and ABC violated their duty of care towards other motorists by not properly securing the load. Tammy is likely to recover damages for her injuries and pain and suffering. 

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