COMLEX Ethics Level 2 Practice Test

Res ipsa loquitur is used when the harm is of a kind that would not ordinarily occur in the absence of negligence and there is no direct evidence pinpointing the defendant’s act. This doctrine allows a jury or judge to infer negligence from the very occurrence of the injury, shifting some proof burden to the defense to show there was no negligence or to provide an alternate explanation. In medicine, it applies when the injury is not something that would typically happen without careless conduct and the instrumentality causing the harm was under the defendant’s control, with no patient factors or other explanations at hand. So the description that the injury would not ordinarily occur without negligence and there is no direct evidence precisely matches the essence of res ipsa loquitur.