The Legal System

What is law - Menti Q

• Rules

• Legislation

• Things we must do

• Restrictions

• Justice

• Advising by rules

• Consequences

• Rules and regulations

What is meant by law?

• Rules

• Regulations

• Justice

• Prohibitive

• Punishment

• Immoral/moral

Common Law 

• Law of the common people 

• “Do unto others as you would unto yourself” OR “Don’t do something to someone that you wouldn’t want done to you!” 

• Legal precedents 

• Civil and Criminal Law 

Legislation 

• Written by those we have elected 

• Houses of Parliament, NI Assembly, Scottish Parliament (National Assembly for Wales) 

• Statutes 

Criminal Law

• Governs society 

• Deals with crime and consequences 

• Leads to punishment e.g. imprisonment 

• Breaches known as ‘offences’ undertaken by ‘offenders’ 

Criminal Law - Actus rea

• Guilty act 

• Doing something that causes harm, equally not doing something that causes harm e.g. no feeding your child as toy have a pre-existing duty to do so or not taking steps to rectify a situation e.g. in a case from 1983 a squatter flicked a cigarette butt away that landed on a mattress that caught fire, the initial guy did nothing; he created the situation so it therefore liable to correct it, so was charged with arson 

Criminal Law - Mens rea

• Guilty mind 

• Establishes the element of intent

• You intent to do something that harms someone. You recognised its reckless but decide to do it anyway 

• A failure to act (negligence) can render intent also 

• You recognise the need to do something but don’t 

Criminal Law - Actus rea and mens rea must collide in order to ..

Return a guilty verdict

Types of Criminal Offence - Classification like this is done by mode of trial 

• Summary offences 

• Either way offences 

• Indictable only offences 

Types of Criminal Offence - Summary offences

• Tried in Magistrates Courts 

• Relatively minor 

Types of Criminal Offence - Either way offences

• Tried in either Crown Court or Magistrate Courts 

• Wide level of seriousness 

• If Magistrates decide their sentencing powers are insufficient they can allocatee cases to the Crown 

Types of Criminal Offence - Indictable only offences

Most serious and can only be dealt with by Crown Court

Punishment

1 - Decided via the courts

• Crown Prosecution Service

• Brings about the prosecution

• Bench of magistrates or Crown Court Judge

2 - Can be tried in criminal then civil but not other way round

3 - Fines, imprisonment, sanctions etc..

4 - Capital punishment

Civil Law

• Governs relationships between citizens - Harm or loss suffered by an individual

• Leads to compensation “on the balance of probability”

Contract Law - Any agreement enforceable in caused is a contract 

Contracts in Veterinary Practice 

• Employment contracts

• Client consent

• Service suppliers

Contract requirements

• Capacity

• Intention to be legally bound 

• Offer and acceptance 

• Consideration 

Tort Law - relates to 

• Negligence

• Trespass 

• Workplace safety 

• Nuisance 

• Defamation 

• Breach of Confidence 

Tort Law - Relating to veterinary nursing

Patient consent - authorised disclosure

Patient interest - disclosure between health professionals

Court orders - subpoena (witness summons) to testify

By law, everyone has a responsibility to report actions covered under these laws e.g. Notifiable diseases such as rabies, anthrax or foot and mouth disease 

Tort Law - Negligence

• These are three principles of negligence that must be proved, in order, to confirm a negligent act has occurred

1 - Duty of Care 

2 - Breach of Duty 

3 - Consequential harm 

Duty of Care

• Falls under tort law

• A legal obligation imposed on an individual requiring that they adhere to a standard of a reasonable care whilst performing any acts that could foreseeably harm others

Threefold test for duty of care

1 - Reasonably foreseeable

2 - Relationship between plaintiff and defendant

3 - Fair and reasonable to impose liability 

Duty of care - Foreseeability and remoteness 

• E.g. failure to dispose of a sharp 

• Reasonable to suggest that a foreseeable consequence would be that someone may suffer and injury

Breach of Duty

• Bolam test 

• Can be subjective and objective 

• “all members of society have a duty to exercise reasonable care toward others and their property” 

Bolam test

When a group or professional body conforms that the action taken would be the same as any other person with that skill or qualification (at that point in time). Therefore, if a body of people from that profession agrees that the action taken was correct, the action cannot be deemed as negligent 

Consequential Harm (Causation) 

Final stage of negligence 

3 stages of tort law

1 - Duty of Care

2 - Breach of Duty

3 - Consequential harm

Once negligence has been proved, what happens next? 

Damages! 

Injured party is restored to their previous state 

• Loss of earning 

• Expenses 

• Loss of use 

• Reduction in value 

• Loss of the animal