Liability for Negligent Misstatements

This new book is the first comprehensive and integrated account of the law on liability for negligent misstatements. Designed as a comprehensive guide for practitioners, it outlines the essential issues that must be considered in determining whether a client will have a cause of action for negligent misstatement. It will also discuss in detail those issues that are likely to prove most contentious. In England, liability for negligent misstatements provides the most important form of tortious redress for financial losses. The examination of this complex law takes place at a number of levels. First, the book attempts to unravel the 'three-stage test' which provides the conceptual framework within which duties of care are analysed in tort. An account of the function of each stage of the test is offered. Second, the book defines what constitutes 'physical damage' and 'pure economic loss' and examines the major ways in which the latter kind of loss arises. Third, the book outlines the elements of liability in physical damage and pure economic loss cases. The treatment of liability by negligent misstatements is completed with a full discussion of breach, causation, and the defences.

1 - Introduction
2 - The Duty of Care Framework
3 - Duty of Care and Policy
4 - Physical Damage
5 - Misstatements Causing Physical Damage
6 - Negligent Communication of Distressing Information
7 - Economic Loss
8 - Misstatements Causing Economic Loss: Antecedents
9 - Misstatements Causing Economic Loss: Orthodox Principles
10 - Misstatements Causing Economic Loss: Compulsion and Inducement
11 - Misstatements Causing Economic Loss: 'Extended Hedley Byrne' Liability
12 - Economic Loss and Contract
13 - Standard of Care and Breach
14 - Causation of Damage
15 - Parties
16 - Defences

Dr Christian Witting is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Melbourne School of Law. He has previously lectured at Nottingham University and Leicester University, and practised as a solicitor in the Commonwealth of Australia Attorney-General's Department. He is the co-author of 'Pure Economic Loss'.