What is a duty of care?
A duty of care is a legal obligation to act with reasonable caution so you do not hurt other people, such as a driver's duty to drive like a careful person toward everyone else on the road. Without a duty owed to the injured person, a negligence claim fails before it starts.
Last checked November 9, 2026 · Official sources (5)
Duty of care example: same puddle, three different people
Example: a cooler leaks onto a grocery store floor and sits there for an hour. Three people slip on it and each has a $9,000 knee injury.
| Who slipped | Duty owed | Effect on the claim |
|---|---|---|
| A shopper in Texas | Make safe or warn of concealed dangers the store knew or should have known about | A full negligence claim is possible if the store had time to find the spill. |
| Someone who broke in after closing in Arizona | Only to avoid intentional, wilful or wanton injury | An ordinary slip almost never qualifies, so the $9,000 likely goes unpaid. |
| A visitor at a Texas city recreation center | Generally only the duty owed to a licensee | Harder to win than the shopper's claim, and other government rules apply. |
The injury and the bill are identical. The legal duty is what changes the outcome.
Why does duty of care matter to an injured person?
Every negligence claim starts here. Courts ask first whether a legal duty existed, then whether it was breached, then whether the breach caused damages. Drivers almost always owe a duty to others on the road, so in crash cases the fight is usually about breach. In property, security and workplace cases, duty itself is often the battle, and the insurer may deny the claim by saying no duty was owed.
How does duty of care change in Arizona and Texas?
Both states set a very low duty toward trespassers. Arizona says a possessor of land owes a trespasser no duty of care except to refrain from intentional, wilful or wanton injury. Texas lowers the duty for many government properties to what is owed a licensee, unless the person paid to use the premises. Children who wander onto dangerous property can be treated differently; see attractive nuisance.
Duty of care vs. standard of care
Duty asks whether the person owed you any care at all. Standard of care asks how much care that duty required. A doctor owes a patient a duty, and the standard of care is what a reasonably careful doctor would have done.
Questions
Does everyone owe me a duty of care?
Not always. Drivers owe it to others on the road, but property owners owe much less to trespassers than to customers.
Who decides whether a duty existed?
Usually the judge, as a legal question. Whether the duty was breached is usually for the jury.
Do businesses owe more care to customers?
Generally yes. A store must make safe or warn of hidden dangers it knew or should have known about.
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See if I’m owed moneySources (5)
- Lozada v. Posada (Tex. 2025), checked 2026-11-09. “owed a common-law duty “to act as a reasonably prudent person . . . toward others on the road.””
- Windrum v. Kareh (Tex. 2019), checked 2026-11-09. “must establish the existence of a legal duty, a breach of that duty, and damages proximately caused by the breach.”
- Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 101.022(a), checked 2026-11-09. “the governmental unit owes to the claimant only the duty that a private person owes to a licensee on private property”
- United Supermarkets, LLC v. McIntire (Tex. 2022), checked 2026-11-09. “a duty to “make safe or warn against any concealed, unreasonably dangerous conditions of which [it was], or reasonably should [have been], aware” but which she was not.”
- A.R.S. § 12-557, checked 2026-11-09. “does not owe a duty of care to a trespasser except to refrain from causing intentional, wilful or wanton injury”