| Venue: | WA SC |
| Facts: | Helling gets glaucoma at a younger-than-average age. The test is quick, simple, and cheap, but the prevailing practice is not to administer it to young-ish people. |
| Posture: | Malpractice lawsuit; verdict for defendants at trial. Affirmed on appeal. Petition for review is granted. |
| Issue: | Should compliance with the prevailing standard of the profession protect the defendants from liability? |
| Holding: | Not as a strict matter of law. Reversed and remanded. |
| Rule: | Basically the Hand formula. |
| Reasoning: | When the test is so easy and the potential harm is so severe, just do the test already. |
| Dicta: | Utter (concurring): There's no moral judgment here, we're just deciding how to spread the damages around. |