Contributory Negligence and Last Clear Chance

This lesson gives the student familiarity with contributory negligence, a defense to a negligence claim, and also with last clear chance, a "defense" to the defense. While these doctrines today are on the wane, students should be generally familiar with them for a full understanding of negligence and comparative negligence.

Learning Outcomes

On completion of the lesson, students will be able to:

1. Define contributory negligence.
2. List some of the rationale of contributory negligence.
3. Explain how contributory negligence is applied.
4. Discuss the doctrine of last clear chance that negates the effect of plaintiff's contributory negligence, and results in plaintiff's full recovery.