Res Ipsa Loquitur: a step along the road to liability without fault

Traditionally, courts have required that the plaintiff prove the negligence of medical defendants through expert testimony. Res ipsa loquitur, on the other hand, allows juries to infer negligence from the circumstances surrounding the injury. The tension between those two propositions is obvious. It is incongruous to allow a lay jury to infer a proposition that generally demands expert proof.