Also known as: significant risks · substantial risk
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A level of probability or likelihood of an adverse outcome that is substantial enough to trigger a legal duty, prohibition, or consequence under the governing doctrine. The threshold requires more than a remote or speculative possibility and focuses on whether the risk is grave or material in context.
Southland Foods sues a supplier for breach of a supply contract. A key subcontractor claims an interest in the same payments. The court finds that proceeding without the subcontractor would leave the supplier subject to a substantial risk of incurring double or inconsistent obligations. The subcontractor is therefore joined as a required party under the rule.
Attorney Sofia Stern represents Sterling Manufacturing in a contract dispute. She also holds a personal financial interest in the opposing party. The firm determines that there is a significant risk her representation of Sterling will be materially limited by that personal interest. Informed consent is required before the representation may continue.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
An undercover officer poses as a fence and repeatedly pressures Seth Shapiro, who has no prior record, to steal electronics by offering unusually high payments and false assurances that the conduct is legal. The methods create a substantial risk that persons not already ready to commit theft will do so. Shapiro raises entrapment as a defense.
Samantha Stone faces an attacker wielding a knife. She responds with a single strike using a heavy object that creates a substantial risk of fatal consequences. The court must decide whether the force used was intended or likely to cause serious bodily harm under the self-defense privilege.
Sydney Santos lives near an industrial site where new monitoring data shows a one-in-a-thousand chance of material health impairment from ongoing emissions. Regulators must determine whether this constitutes a significant risk requiring stricter exposure limits before imposing new controls.
Stonehaven Properties purchases equipment whose design creates a substantial risk of serious injury during ordinary use. The buyer claims the product is defective because it fails to meet ordinary consumer expectations regarding safety. The court evaluates whether the risk level renders the product defective.
The standard requires a substantial or material probability that is grave enough to trigger legal consequences rather than a remote or speculative chance. Primary authorities apply the threshold to joinder, conflicts, entrapment, and self-defense to mark when action or restraint is required.
Supporting sources
The core concept remains a substantial likelihood of an adverse result, but the doctrines apply it to different protected interests. In joinder it concerns inconsistent obligations. In conflicts it concerns material limitation of representation.
Supporting sources
The defense succeeds when law enforcement methods create a substantial risk that persons not already ready to commit the offense will do so. The focus is on the inducement's tendency to generate criminal conduct beyond the predisposed.
Supporting sources
A harm creates serious bodily harm when it produces a substantial risk of fatal consequences or permanent loss of an important bodily function. The inquiry examines the intended or likely result of the defensive force rather than the actual outcome.
Supporting sources
…pregnant woman or any existing children of her family, greater than if the pregnancy were terminated," or (b) "that there is a substantial risk that if the child were born it would suffer from such physical or mental abnormalities as to be seriously handicapped." The Act also provides that, in making this determination, "account…