Chicago personal injury lawyers - Article

The Reasonable Person Standard

When a person acts negligently, he or she has departed from the conduct expected in a situation. This is determined by measuring the actions of the actual person against the mythical standards of a reasonably prudent person acting in an almost identical situation. The hypothetical reasonable person provides an objective standard by which the conduct of the real person can be judged.

In law, the reasonable person is not the "average" person or a "typical" person. Rather, the reasonable person is a composite of the community's judgment as to how the typical person should act in a situation that could pose a threat to the public. Just because a majority of people in the community feel one way, it doesn't mean that that standard of conduct will be accepted. As an example, the majority of people in the community may jay-walk, but jay-walking may fall well below the community's standards of what constitutes safe conduct.

By inviting the standards of a reasonable person, negligence is distinguished from intentional torts like assault and battery.

, When an intentional tort is alleged, the plaintiff seeks to establish that the defendant acted deliberately with an intended result. In negligence suits, however, the plaintiff has to show that the defendant's actions which didn't meet the community standard of reasonable. The failure of the defendant to act as a reasonable person has to have caused the plaintiff's injury.

The law considers a number of factors to determine where or not a person has acted to the standards of the hypothetical reasonable person. These include:

• Knowledge
• Experience
• Perception of the person
• The activity in which the person is engaging
• Physical characteristics of the person
• The circumstances surrounding the activity

Contact a Chicago Personal Injury Lawyer

If you have been injured by a negligent person, contact the Chicago personal injury lawyers of Friedman & Bonebrake at 312-466-8200 to discuss your case and to determine your legal options.