Res Ipsa Loquitur is used in personal injury cases when establishing the negligence of the defendant. When a plaintiff presents res ipsa loquitur, it means they have presented a fact or evidence that presumes negligence on the defendant’s part. The limitation of res ipsa loquitur is that it can only be used in cases where the plaintiff has no blame for the incident.
The Elements of Res Ipsa Loquitur
In order to prove negligence through res ipsa loquitur, the plaintiff must provide evidence for all three of the following elements:
- The type of incident is generally caused by negligence – The incident must be one that is nearly impossible unless there was negligence involved. This could be something like a shelving unit falling in a warehouse or something falling out of a window and injuring the plaintiff.
- The incident was caused by factors that were in the defendant’s control alone – Res ipsa loquitur is a way to prove the negligence of the defendant; therefore it cannot be used if there is any way the incident may have been caused even partially by another party. The thing that caused the incident or the negligence in question must have been the responsibility of the defendant and the defendant alone.
- The plaintiff has no fault in the incident
The plaintiff cannot use res ipsa loquitur unless the above three requirements are met and unless the defendant neglected their duty to the plaintiff and there was no interference or negligence by another party. If the plaintiff was a trespasser on the defendant’s property, then the defendant did not owe the plaintiff a duty of care. Even if the defendant was aware of the plaintiff’s trespassing and their negligent actions caused injury, the plaintiff cannot use res ipsa loquitur.
Defenses Against Res Ipsa Loquitur
Res ipsa loquitur does not categorically prove the defendant’s negligence; it just establishes that there is an inference of negligence. The best way for a defendant to defend against res ipsa loquitur is to undermine one of the three elements that the plaintiff must prove. This may be by proving that someone else could have been responsible for the plaintiff’s injury or the incident. It could also be by proving that the plaintiff could have taken action to avoid injury or that they had some fault in the incident.
Another common defense to res ipsa loquitur is to prove that the defendant did not owe the plaintiff a duty of care.