The driver, who was negligent in not slowing down while making the turn, might, however, be able to support a defense of contributory negligence by showing that the bicyclist was using their cell phone while on their bike.
#Negligent dinocide driver#
In jurisdictions where contributory negligence is allowed as a defense in personal injury lawsuits, a plaintiff could be denied compensation if the defendant can show that the plaintiff was even 1% responsible for the accident causing their injuries.įor example, a bicyclist sues for damages for injuries suffered when they were hit by a driver making a right hand turn. It’s an all-or-nothing approach to liability that can have harsh consequences for personal injury plaintiffs. Contributory NegligenceĬontributory negligence refers to the plaintiff’s own negligent actions which contributed to the injuries they sustained. For example, a driver who has an accident while speeding on a highway might be found liable for ordinary negligence, but a driver who hits a child while speeding through a school zone is acting with a reckless disregard that could form the basis for a finding of gross negligence. While this recklessness falls short of an actual intent to commit harm, it also goes beyond ordinary negligence. Gross negligence is the most serious type of negligence, and a finding of gross negligence can result in a higher amount of damages. When a person acts with gross negligence, they’re acting with a reckless disregard for the harmful consequences of their actions. The following is a general outline of the various types of negligence, but it’s important to keep in mind that individual states differ in how they define and quantify the extent of the liability of each type of negligence. This means, for example, the test is applied regardless of differences in a person’s intelligence or life experiences. Because the test is objective, it applies to everyone, regardless of their individual characteristics. The reasonable person test is an objective standard that the law applies to determine if an individual has acted the way a reasonable person would act. This is because the legal meaning relies on the concept of “the reasonable person.” The Reasonable Person Test This “failure to exercise care” encompasses both a person’s actions and the failure to act.Īs you can see, the legal definition of negligence has a much narrower application than its everyday meaning. The ordinary meaning of negligence, per Google’s English dictionary, is the “failure to take proper care in doing something.”Ĭontrast this with the legal definition of negligence: The failure to exercise the level of care toward another person that a reasonable or prudent person would exercise under similar circumstances. One key thing to remember about negligence is that its ordinary, everyday meaning is different from its legal meaning.
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