Liability for Negligent Words

This book is written with the aim of exploring the law of negligence in the context of words. Divided into fourteen chapters, it includes an overview of legal approaches to words followed by the significance of the House of Lords decision in Hedley Byrne as the basis of the action for negligent misstatement. A compendium of professional liability situations involving modern forms of informational injury follows. This includes the obligations of lawyers, doctors, lenders and public authorities under negligent misstatement principles. Negligent words and communication of news are also addressed, including compensation for nervous shock. A final chapter is devoted to possible future uses of the law. The law of negligence is increasingly imposing a duty of care upon professional parties. This book traces the expansion of the recognition of negligence liability where words are the source of the harm into contemporary situations of informational harm.