Negligence is the core concept of personal injury law. In a general sense, it means failing to exercise reasonable care and hurting someone as a result. In more technical language, the law defines negligence by the following requirements:
- The existence of a legally-recognized duty of care;
- A breach of the duty of care; and
- Damages to another person caused by the breach.
For example, everyone who drives a car owes a duty of care to drive safely so as not to hurt anyone else on the road. The law deems a driver negligent if he breaches that duty by, say, speeding, his breach leads to an accident, and someone gets injured in that accident.
