BBC News quotes Professor Nora Freeman Engstrom on the outcome of a lawsuit where a woman sued her eight-year-old nephew. 

A jury has ruled against a woman who sued her 12-year-old nephew for a hug that caused her to break her wrist.

Four years ago, Jennifer Connell attended her then-eight-year-old nephew’s birthday party at his home in Westport, Connecticut.

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The lawsuit asked the jury to find that Tarala acted “unreasonably” for an eight-year-old when he jumped into Connell’s arms, says Nora Freeman Engstrom, a professor at Stanford Law School.

“It’s much harder to prove the negligence of a child, so these suits face an uphill road. While adults are negligent if they fail to display reasonable care under the circumstances, children are held to a relaxed standard,” Ms Engstrom told the BBC.

“The general rule is: As long as a child is not engaged in an adult activity (and hugging certainly does not qualify), a child must only exercise the care that a reasonable child of the child’s actual age, intelligence, and experience would exercise.”