Legal Standards of Care

Abstract

Two methods are employed to induce a potential injurer to take socially optimal care to reduce either the probability that a victim will be harmed or the magnitude of the harm to the victim should he be harmed, or both. One, termed strict or absolute liability, makes the injurer responsible for all harm that is caused. The injurer, in her own interest, takes socially optimal care because by doing so she minimizes the sum of precaution costs and the costs imposed on the victim. Since she bears both of these costs she will wish to make them as low as possible. Thus, under a strict liability regime, a potential injurer is induced to act in a socially desirable way not by being offered the possibility of escaping liability for harm caused but rather by the certainty that she will be liable for all harm which is caused.