Therefore, the objective standard of care will vary from case to case. There are cases where the standard of care and competence is higher because the defendant works in a particular profession or believes he or she possesses certain skills. However, even in these cases, the court uses the objective standard of care test, where it applies a standard of care that can be expected of a prudent member of the same profession or a prudent person with the same skills as the defendant. The next set of cases will demonstrate how the common law has managed to apply the objective standard of care to different circumstances or types of defendants in order to ensure that the standard of care is not technical but something that can be flexibly shaped to suit different situations. In medical malpractice cases, courts have applied the objective standard of care to hold the defendant liable for negligence if his or her conduct or actions fall short of the standard of care that would be adopted by reasonable or prudent members of the profession . In the case of Bolam v Friern Hospital Management Committee, the court established what is called the "Bolam test". This applies to defendants who are professionals and the purpose of the test is to apply the objective standard of care to the defendant on the basis of reasonable