The thing speaks for itself.
Literally, ”the facts speak for themselves.” In malpractice, a legal doctrine or presumption that, when an injury occurs to a plaintiff through a situation under the sole and exclusive control of the defendant and where such injury would not normally occur if the one in control had used due care, then it is presumed the defendent is negligent. Applies, for example, in the classic case of a surgeon who leaves a sponge in the abdomen.
“The thing speaks for itself.” A legal doctrine which states that a plaintiff (person filing suit) does not have to prove negligence in a specific factual situation; rather, negligence may be presumed from the facts that are proved, and it is up to the defendant to prove that she was not negligent. Res ipsa loquitur is applied when it is obvious that there was negligence (the injury could not have been caused without someone’s negligence), but the knowledge regarding the negligent act is solely within the control of the defendant(s). An example is the leaving of a sponge in a surgical patient; the unconscious patient could not possibly know who left it there, but there is no doubt that the act was negligent.
Literally, “the thing speaks for itself.” In malpractice this concept is used for cases in which an injury occurs to the plaintiff in a situation solely under the control of the defendant. The injury would not have occurred had the defendant exercised due care. The defendant must then defend his or her actions. In medicine the classic example of this situation is the leaving of an object such as a sponge or clamp in a patient’s body after a surgical procedure, or the inadvertent removal of a healthy organ or extremity.