Negligence

Negligence is a civil wrong (tort) involving unreasonably careless conduct (or a breach of the common law duty of care), resulting in loss, damage or injury.

To prove a case of negligence it is necessary to show
1. A duty of care was owed by the employer (ie that the employee was acting in the course of his/her employment);
2. The employer acted in breach of that duty by not doing everything that was reasonable to prevent foreseeable harm
3. The breach led directly to the loss, damage or injury.

Defence to negligence may include
* There was no duty owed to the employee since the case referred to something which did not take place during the course of employment;
* There was no breach in that what happened was not foreseeable and in the event everything reasonable had been done;
* The loss, damage or injury was either non-existent or not caused by any breach;
* The claimant voluntarily accepted the risk (volenti non fit injuria)
* The case was out of time.

There is also case law for a "sole fault of claimant" defence (ICI vs Shatwell). I understand this to mean the person was harmed by an activity they were involved in. That person was considered to be an 'expert' (it was demonstrated they knew what they were doing) but they were not following best practices, even though they had been reminded of them by the employer.

There is also a partial defence of 'contributory negligence.'