Landmark Negligence Cases That Changed Personal Injury Law

6 November 2025

Toby Patrick

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Personal injury law is vital for those who have suffered from negligence or a lack of care with their injury and therefore seek compensation. Over time, several landmark cases have completely transformed personal injury law. Below, we look at some of the key cases that have shaped modern legal principles and how they continue to impact lives today.

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Palsgraf vs Long Island Railroad Co. (1928)

One of the oldest and most famous cases in personal injury law is the claim of Helen Palsgraf against Long Island Railroad Co. In this case, Helen was injured when a package containing fireworks exploded on the railroad tracks. The explosion occurred as railway employees were assisting a man boarding a train.

Helen Palsgraf sued for her injuries, which led to a major debate over liability. The court ultimately ruled that the railroad company was not liable, as the harm was not foreseeable. This decision introduced the concept of foreseeability into the doctrine of negligence, emphasising that liability depends on whether harm is a reasonably predictable consequence of the defendant’s actions.

Donoghue vs Stevenson (1932)

Another landmark case from the early 1930s, this one transformed personal injury law across the world. May Donoghue became ill after drinking a bottle of ginger beer that contained a decomposed snail. Although her friend purchased the drink, Donoghue sued the manufacturer, Stevenson, for damages.

The court concluded that Stevenson had a duty of care to ensure the safety of their products, even without direct contact between the manufacturer and consumer. This case established the modern principle of negligence and influenced similar legal doctrines internationally.

Baker v. City of St. Louis (1967)

In this case, Baker sued the City of St. Louis after being injured while attempting to board a bus. He argued that the city failed to ensure proper maintenance of its buses and adequate training of drivers. The city claimed sovereign immunity, meaning it could not be sued.

However, the court ruled that the city could be held liable under the doctrine of negligence. This case reshaped the modern understanding of government liability, ensuring that cities cannot rely on sovereign immunity when negligence or personal injury is involved.

Roe v. Wade (1973)

Although best known as a landmark decision in reproductive rights, Roe v. Wade also had implications for personal injury and medical law. Jane Roe challenged Texas laws that prohibited abortion, arguing for her right to privacy.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the constitutional right to privacy extended to a woman’s decision to have an abortion. While primarily focused on bodily autonomy, the case reinforced the importance of medical rights and personal safety, principles closely related to personal injury and negligence law.

Berg v. Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. (1978)

In this case, Berg sought compensation from Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company under his insurance policy. The dispute centred on how the company interpreted policy coverage. The court ruled that insurance companies cannot deny coverage to victims based on technicalities or unclear wording, describing such behaviour as professional negligence.

This case transformed the way insurance contracts are written, reinforcing the need for fairness and transparency between insurers and policyholders.

McDonald’s Hot Coffee Case: Liebeck v. McDonald’s (1994)

Perhaps the most famous personal injury case of all time, this lawsuit involved Stella Liebeck, who suffered third-degree burns after spilling hot coffee purchased from McDonald’s. She was hospitalised and incurred serious medical expenses.

The jury found that McDonald’s had acted with gross negligence by serving coffee at a dangerously high temperature. The case sent shockwaves through the legal and corporate world, leading to stronger consumer protection laws and the introduction of visible safety warnings on hot beverage containers.

It also sparked global debate about corporate responsibility, personal accountability and public perception of compensation claims.

Summary

Personal injury law continues to evolve through court decisions that balance fairness, duty of care and responsibility. From the snail in the bottle to the coffee cup warning, each case has shaped how we understand negligence and justice in everyday life.

While not every claim succeeds, these landmark rulings have transformed the modern legal landscape, ensuring that individuals and institutions are held accountable for the safety and well-being of others.

Current Most Read

Finding Your Focus

ITK Magazine
May 7, 2024
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Striking out on your own and setting up a new business can be mentally, physically and emotionally challenging. You will need to be both resilient and resourceful. Developing your own Health and Wellbeing Toolkit can make a huge difference to your eventual success.

Developing tools to help with decision-making is essential. You will inevitably encounter situations where there are multiple paths you could take. You may have lots of different ideas swirling around in your head about the impact those paths could have on your business.

From an energy point of view, this can be exhausting. Consciously and subconsciously, your mind will be picking away at these ideas, reviewing the different options. This continuous low-level mental activity can be stressful and take up energy, which can ultimately be draining for your body and which may leave you feeling tired, irritable and out-of-sorts.

Focus Wheel

This is a well-established coaching technique. Using the Focus Wheel allows you to:

Get ideas out of your head and onto a piece of paper, freeing up head space and boosting energy
Evaluate your thoughts in a visual way, so that you can ‘see’ the way forward

You need a pen and a piece of paper and to draw a pizza.

Say you’re considering a number of different ideas for the type of business you could start. Each idea has its pros and cons, you just don’t know how to weigh them all up.

Draw your pizza shape then label each slice of pizza with the name of an idea. Create as many slices as you need.
Ask yourself this key question about each idea: How excited am I about this idea?
Rate it out of 10, where 1 equals ‘I’m not excited at all’ and 10 equals ‘I’m bouncing with excitement’.
Stick with the number that first pops in your mind. You’re tapping into your gut reactions, don’t overthink it.
Identify the 2/3 ideas that excite you the most. Ignore the rest for now.
Tapping into your excitement is vital. Running your own business can be hard work. If you don’t feel excited about what you will be doing, it’s unlikely to be sustainable, as your enthusiasm for it will run out. And besides, why would you choose to do something that doesn’t excite you?
Now that you have your top 2/3 ideas, we need to repeat the process for each idea to drill down further and evaluate the pros and cons.
Draw a new pizza, and onto each slice name all the pros and cons of that idea. Then ask yourself: How significant is this issue? Rate each out of 10; 1 = not significant at all, 10 = highly significant.
Remember to go with your first number, don’t overthink it.
Again, you will find that there are 2/3 significant pros or cons with each idea.
Drill down again, i.e. repeat this process with each of the 2/3 significant pros or cons

Using this process and getting to the heart of an issue will give you clarity. You will then be able to make a decision about which idea feels right to run with and which areas you need to address in order to succeed.

Why bother doing any of this?

As human beings, we have evolved over millennia to deal with emergency situations. We have an excellent fight-flight-freeze mechanism that helps us cope with short term, stressful emergencies as a result.

Sadly, we have not yet developed an effective mechanism that deals with long-term, persistent, low-level stress, anxiety or worry. I’m talking about the niggling, persistent stuff that just sits there, day after day, wearing us down. Left unchecked, this energy draining contributes to all sorts of physical, mental and emotional issues, and it can eventually lead to chronic fatigue.

Working with a Focus Wheel is a great way of stepping in and dealing with recurring thoughts that are consciously and subconsciously causing you worry, stress or anxiety. You can redirect your energy and interrupt the behaviours that contribute to fatigue.

Another benefit that working with a Focus Wheel brings is a deeper connection to your gut instinct, to your intuition. This may not be an aspect of yourself that you have consciously developed, or even been aware of. You should never underestimate how important and powerful your instinctive reactions are. Your intuition is a survival mechanism and a great resource to tap into.

As a small business owner, you need to take your health and wellbeing as seriously as your business plan and cashflow forecasts. You ARE your business. If your health and wellbeing became compromised, your business would be, too. Developing your toolkit and boosting your resilience are vital elements towards the success of your business.

Combining Business with Health and Wellbeing

Fatigue is often an indicator that all is not well with our health and wellbeing. If not addressed, it can develop into a chronic, long-term fatigue condition. I support people to develop their individual Health and Wellbeing Toolkits, so that they remain physically, emotionally and mentally healthy. Having the skills to recover and channel your energy in a positive direction can be life-changing.

The result of my work is that my clients can make the transitions they want to live full and happy lives.

Suzanne Smith

www.reconnectingyou.co.uk