what is this??

Question

rei ipsa loquitur??

Answer 1

Res Ipsa Loquitur means "the thing speaks of itself".

It is a very old common law tort doctrine, which basically translates as "look, it's obvious, why are we arguing about this anymore?"

Res Ipsa Loquitur applies when the direct cause of a problem is unknown, or cannot be easily proven, but the means by which the problem arose were solely controlled by one party, and if the problem exists, then they must have done something wrong.

Example. A person goes in for surgery. There is only one surgeon. After the surgery, the person finds out that a sponge was left in their body. There are no witnesses to prove that the surgeon left it in there. But there is no other possible explanation, so the court will assume that the surgeon had to be responsible.

The main point of the doctrine is to get past a procedural challenge, if there is not enough evidence to prove the defendant WAS actually responsible, where the defendant is the only one who COULD have been responsible.

Answer 2

It is a Latin 'Legal Maxim'. It is used in tort law in common law countries and essentially means 'the thing speaks for itself'. An example is if i was crossing a road while the traffic signal said cars were to stop, and i were hit by a car - in my negligence claim i could say 'res ipsa loquitor'.

Nowadays, in the UK at least, such terminology is consigned to textbooks and history. Legal practitioners now try to speak plain english.!!