Definition of reasonable person
Noun
reasonable person
- (law) A fictional person used as a comparative legal standard to represent an average member of society and how he or she would behave or think, especially in determining negligence; sometimes formulated as "a person of ordinary prudence exercising due care in like circumstances."
Further reading
The reasonable person is a legal fiction of the common law representing an objective standard against which any individual's conduct can be measured. It is used to determine if a breach of the standard of care has occurred, provided a duty of care can be proven.
The reasonable person standard holds: each person owes a duty to behave as a reasonable person would under the same or similar circumstances.[1][2] While the specific circumstances of each case will require varying kinds of conduct and degrees of care, the reasonable person standard undergoes no variation itself.[3][4]
This standard performs a crucial role in determining negligence in both criminal law�that is, criminal negligence�and tort law. The standard also has a presence in contract law, though its use there is substantially different.
The standard does not exist independently of other circumstances within a case which could affect an individual's judgment.
Notes
- Brown v. Kendall, 60 Mass. 292 (1850).
- Franklin, at 54
- Triestram v. Way, 281 N.W. 420 (Mich. 1938).
- Franklin, at 55
References:
- Wiktionary. Published under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
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