A tortious liability is a civil wrong, which arises from the breach of a duty primarily fixed by law: this duty is towards persons generally and its breach is redressible by an action for unliquidated damages.
One of the liabilities under tort law is negligence which is one of the most common liabilities casted upon medical professionals. Such a liability draws upon unliquidated damages, which are damages not previously determined and are to be decided by the court based upon the particular facts of the case. It is in this very manner, that, the victims of medical negligence are compensated and also this is where the medical fraternity is abused upon by filing for frivolous legal suits.
Before moving further, it is important to understand the term ‘negligence’ with reference to tortious liability.
“Negligence is the breach of a duty caused by the omission to do something which a reasonable man, guided by those considerations which ordinarily regulate the conduct of human affairs would do, or doing something which a prudent and reasonable man would not do. Actionable negligence consists in the neglect of the use of ordinary care or skill towards a person to whom the defendant owes the duty of observing ordinary care and skill, by which neglect the plaintiff has suffered injury
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Neither the very highest nor a very low degree of care and competence, judged in the light of the particular circumstances of each case, is what the law requires and a person is not liable in negligence because someone else of greater skill and knowledge would have prescribed different treatment or operated in a different way; nor he is guilty of negligence if he has acted in accordance with a practice accepted as proper by a responsible body of medical men skilled in that particular art, even though a body of adverse opinion also existed among medical