Duty Of Care Essay

When an employer or a university provides a reference, a duty of care is owed to the employee or student and such duty persists even when the relationship between employer/employee or university/student has come to an end. The breach of a duty primarily fixed by law gives rise to a tortious liability. If the referee has failed to exercise reasonable care and skill (by?) providing a reference that contains inaccurate, defamatory or untrue information that causes loss, then he or she may be at risk of a claim for “negligent misstatement”, defamation or calumny. “You must take reasonable care to avoid acts or omissions which you can reasonably foresee would be likely to injure your neighbour”, this is the general principle of duty of care also called the

In other words, it states that a prima facie duty of care is established to the persons who may foreseeably be injured by someone’s failure or omission to take reasonable care. Later on, Lord Wilberforce in Anns v Merton (1978), proposed a new two-stage test which must verify whether a prima facie duty of care can be established when the relationship of proximity between the claimant and the defendant is set and if such duty is reduced, rejected or limited by any considerations. In Anns v Merton (1978), a local council was negligent in the way it inspected the work of a private builder, causing loss to the claimant, and was therefore liable although there was no contractual relationship. More recently, the Anns test was overruled in Caparo Industries v Dickman (1990) where the House of Lords set up a three-stage test that helps to verify whether a duty of care is owed when it had not been already established by previous cases. This test must show the reasonable foreseeability of the harm or loss caused to the claimant, the relationship of proximity between the claimant and the defendant and if it’s fair, just and