Under the strict legal definition, negligence must involve proving a clearly established duty of care which has been breached in a way that has resulted in injury or harm to the recipient of care. There does not need to be any malicious intention. Whether or not a particular injury can be attributed to medical negligence, or must simply be accepted as a reasonable risk of the particular treatment, depends upon an assessment of whether the doctor has fallen below the standard expected of practitioners in the particular specialty. A defence to such a claim is that a responsible body of practitioners would have acted in the same way (even though the majority might not) and in doing so would have acted logically. Ninety six per cent of claims are settled without a Court hearing through various methods of ‘alternative dispute resolution’. The NHS Litigation Authority has calculated that from 1996 to 2006, claimants abandoned 41 per cent of claims, 41 per cent settled ‘out of Court’, 14 per cent remain outstanding and 4 per cent reached Court, mostly for approval of an agreed settlement. Fewer than 50 cases a year are contested at a Court hearing.