The Standard of Care

The Standard of Care is a legal concept in the law of negligence. It is defined by Black’s Law Dictionary as: “that degree of care which a reasonably prudent person should exercise in same or similar circumstances.”. In professional malpractice, you would exchange prudent person to prudent practitioner of like specialty and location. In other words, the practitioner with the average degree of skill, care and diligence in that locality at the time in question. As time has gone on, most courts consider a national standard of care, not a statewide standard of care. In the end, the standard of care is decided by a jury.

Lawrence F. Kobak, Esq.
Senior Counsel
Frier Levitt
101 Greenwich Street, Suite 8B
New York, NY 10006
516-755-7553