In Robinson v Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police [2014] EWCA Civ 15 the Court of Appeal held that "the Caparo test applies to all claims in the modern law of negligence". By the time the case reached the Supreme Court that well-known three-stage test had been held to be of no practical application. How and why did this volte-face occur? And where does that leave lawyers and judges when deciding whether a duty of care is owed or not? Mark Cannon QC and Joshua Folkard discuss.