What is Negligence?
{{wiktionary}} In law, '''negligence''' is a kind of [[lawsuit|legal claim]] that people and organizations can bring if they are hurt. It is a kind of [[tort]]. The law calls someone '''negligent''' if he hurts someone else, or someone else's [[property]], because he was not careful enough. In a [[legal case]] about negligence, the person who brings the lawsuit is called the [[plaintiff]] and the person who is being sued is called the [[defendant]]. == Negligence case == The law about negligence is different in many places (or [[jurisdiction]]s),<ref>{{cite web|last1=Wright|first1=Richard W.|title=The Standards of Care in Negligence Law|url=http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198265795.001.0001/acprof-9780198265795-chapter-12|website=Oxford Scholarship Online|publisher=Oxford University Press|accessdate=31 May 2017}}</ref> but for the plaintiff to win, he or she usually has to prove at least four things: * the defendant had a [[wikt:duty|duty]] to behave in a certain way; * the defendant [[wikt:breach|breached]] that duty; * the plaintiff was ''damaged'', or harmed as a result; and * the breach of duty was the [[wikt:cause|cause]] reasonably predictable cause of the plaintiff's harm.<ref>{{cite web|title=Negligence and Tort Law|url=https://www.expertlaw.com/library/personal_injury/negligence.html|website=Expert Law|publisher=ExpertLaw.com|accessdate=31 May 2017|archive-date=6 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170906035306/https://www.expertlaw.com/library/personal_injury/negligence.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> === Duty === The defendant's ''duty'' is what the law says that he or she has to do. Usually, the law says that people have to be ''reasonable''. That means they have to be careful, use good judgment, and not be unfair to other people. In some cases, the law tells people that they have special duties. In other cases, the law says that people have no duties at all. For example, in most places that use the [[common law]], a person has no legal duty to rescu