Also known as: negligences · negligent · negligently · negligentia
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
An objective standard of conduct requiring a person to conform to the care that a reasonable person would exercise under like circumstances. Criminal negligence requires a gross deviation from that standard creating a high risk of death or serious bodily harm.
Neville Norton left a loaded rifle unattended on a campsite table while hosting guests. A child picked up the weapon and accidentally shot another guest. The resulting death was charged as involuntary manslaughter because Norton's failure to secure the firearm constituted criminal negligence under the common law standard.
Nalini Narula fell on a wet floor at Nexus Technologies. After the incident the company installed new nonslip mats. Evidence of those mats is inadmissible to prove the company's prior negligence in maintaining the floor.
Nicole Navarro drove through a red light while texting and struck a pedestrian. Under the Model Penal Code she may be convicted of negligent homicide only if she should have been aware of the substantial risk her conduct created and her inattention amounted to a gross deviation from reasonable care.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Natasha Nielsen hired a contractor to fix a loose stair railing in her tenant's apartment. The contractor performed the work negligently and the railing later collapsed injuring a guest. The landlord faces liability because the negligent repair created a deceptive appearance of safety unknown to the tenant.
Nicholas Nunez backed his truck out of a driveway without checking the rearview mirror and struck a child on a bicycle. Liability turns on whether his conduct deviated from the standard of a reasonable person under the same circumstances.
Nina Nielsen published an article accusing a local business owner of fraud. Because the plaintiff is a private figure on a matter of public concern the owner may recover by proving the publisher acted negligently in failing to verify the facts.
Criminal negligence requires a gross deviation from the reasonable person standard that creates a high risk of death or serious bodily harm while ordinary civil negligence requires only a failure to exercise reasonable care.
Evidence of measures taken after an injury that would have made the harm less likely is inadmissible to prove negligence or culpable conduct though it may be admitted for other purposes such as proving ownership or control.
A person acts negligently when he should be aware of a substantial and unjustifiable risk and his failure to perceive it constitutes a gross deviation from the standard of care a reasonable person would observe in the actor's situation.
A landlord who makes repairs in a negligent manner that makes the premises more dangerous or gives them a deceptive appearance of safety is liable for physical harm to the tenant or permitted guests when the tenant neither knows nor should know of the danger.
…which are compensatory in natureapparently requires proof of actual malice under Alabama law, and the judge charged that "mere negligence or carelessness is not evidence of actual malice or malice in fact, and does not justify an award of exemplary or punitive damages." He refused to charge, however, that the jury must be…