Third, suppose that most software support providers would have used this database if they had it. If you don't check the database, and you provide expensive bad advice, you can be accused of acting unreasonably. Prevailing standard of care. If someone sues you for ordinary negligence, they will compare your behavior to what any reasonable person would have done under the circumstances. If they sue for malpractice, they will compare your behavior to what a reasonable member of your profession would have done.
Professional standards are much higher and much better documented.
Therefore, if you act negligently in a professional capacity, it will be easier to prove your negligence by comparing you to other professionals than by comparing you to any reasonably bright and careful person who might undertake to provide the services that you provided. In complex situations, different reasonable people will collect and evaluate information very differently. This makes the plaintiff's task difficult but the principle is the same. She'll have to show that you didn't approach the problem in any of the ways that reasonable people do, or that no reasonable person would have approached it in the way that you did. History of computer malpractice suits Few published court cases involve claims of computer malpractice.