HOW TO PROVE LIABILITY FOR NEGLIGENCE

Actual vs Constructive Knowledge

To prove liability for negligence you need to establish knowledge. For example, if you believe that your employer is responsible for your injury you would have to show that they were aware of the threat and did not take any reasonable steps to avoid it.

The judge applies knowledge differently depending on the case. To establish knowledge, whether constructive or actual, the court will take into account several factors of your case.

Actual Knowledge

In Actual Knowledge, you must demonstrate that you became aware of the significance of your problem, supported by strong evidence, on a particular date. For example, an employee may claim that he was exposed to extensive noise while working in a loud environment without ear protection in 2006. He was diagnosed with hearing loss in 2008. The claimant had been aware of his hearing loss but did not take any action or seek medical advice for many years, until he received a letter from a lawyer in 2026. In this case, the court may find that the employee’s actual date of knowledge was in 2008, and his case may be statute-barred under s.11 of the Limitation Act 1980. The court may also decline to exercise its discretion under s.33 of the Limitation Act to extend the limitation period.

Constructive Knowledge

Constructive Knowledge arises when an individual is legally presumed to be aware, only because in some circumstances, they are expected to be aware. “They should have known it”. It concerns people who had opportunities to know, but they intentionally decided to ignore the situation without a good reason. For example, if you visited your GP for your injury, it would be considered an opportunity to ask your GP about the cause of your injury, and he would have revealed the cause to you. Or in another case, the judge may consider that if the employee had consulted his GP within a year of first identifying his hearing loss, he ‘would have’ been informed of the potential causes of his issue.

Knowledge applies to your case and assesses other possibilities to increase your chance of winning in legal proceedings.