Is the Reasonable Person Test Objective or Subjective?
The reasonable person test is an objective standard. The purpose of the reasonable person test is to give the jury a concrete, uniform standard when they’re looking at the actions of each party in a case. While it’s up to the jury to decide what’s reasonable in any given situation, the jury evaluates behavior based on an objective, reasonable person. They don’t look at what’s reasonable, specific to any one person. Instead, the test is an objective, uniform evaluation of behavior that applies to everyone in society.