Tae & Partners

Glossary / Public liability

Obvious risk

All statesPublic liability

A risk that would have been obvious to a reasonable person in the injured person’s position. There is no duty to warn of it.

Civil liability legislation in Queensland and New South Wales provides that an occupier does not have to warn of an obvious risk, and that a person is presumed to have been aware of it. Whether a risk was obvious is argued on the facts, for example whether a hazard was visible, lit and expected in that setting.