Negligence

Negligence is a tort. A tort is a civil wrong. Negligence can also be a criminal act in certain circumstances. For this article, I will deal only with negligence as a tort and not the criminal side or aspect of negligence.

A person is negligent if that person fails to take proper care and act diligently in his obligation or duty to another when performing a task or providing a service. Where there is a standard of care to be taken or a certain level of performance to be achieved that would be expected of a reasonably prudent person, and one’s care or performance falls below that standard, then that person may be found to have been negligent and may have to pay an amount of money to compensate that other party if that person’s action caused damage or harm to that other party.

Accordingly, and as an example, if you hire a contractor to do a home renovation, and he or she does a bad job such that his work falls below the standard that would have been expected of a reasonably prudent person with the same or similar skill-set in the same or similar situation or circumstance, then that contractor would be held liable to pay you for the cost to repair his defective or deficient work.