Strict Liability
Strict liability is a concept that has implications for various aspects of personal injury law. Simply put, strict liability will attach to a defendant whenever they engage in some sort of abnormally dangerous activity (it also attaches in other areas such as products liability which will not be discussed in this blog) such as transporting toxic chemicals or starting a tiger breeding farm in the middle of a neighborhood. The basic principle behind strict liability is that the defendant is engaged in an activity that is so abnormally dangerous that he or she should be held responsible for any foreseeable damages regardless of how careful he or she is.
For example, say Bernard starts a tiger breeding farm in the middle of his neighborhood which has extremely lax zoning restrictions. Bernard is out walking one of his tigers while being as careful as possible. Wendy comes by and notices that Bernard is walking a jungle cat down the street, becomes terrified and tries to run away, running straight into the path of an oncoming car which hits Wendy and causes her severe injuries. Wendy will be able to recover for those injuries from Bernard because he was engaged in an activity so dangerous that his level of care is irrelevant. It is foreseeable that someone would see him walking a tiger, become frightened, and try to run away. Thus, he is liable for all of the consequences that flow from that.
The above example was pretty rudimentary and strict liability cases are often more complex than that. It is also highly unlikely you will come across many people walking tigers in your neighborhood. However, you or someone you know may become injured in a situation where strict liability should apply. Consult a knowledgeable personal injury attorney to determine what type of case you have and how to best recover for your injuries.