Negligence is one of those basic legal concepts that is easily stated and misconstrued. Negligence is the condition of not heeding. It is the failure to exercise due care. When a person fails to exercise reasonable care a prudent person would exercise under the same circumstances, that person is said to be negligent. It is well established in most states that a motorist, must, at all times, use ordinary care to avoid colliding with another, and must be alert and watchful so as not to place himself in danger, and, while such motorist may assume that others will use ordinary care, he cannot for that reason omit any of the care that the law demands of him. The determination of whether a person has met the standard of ordinary care is often resolved by a jury after presentation of evidence and argument at trial. Ordinary care is the duty to act reasonably.

Negligence is a factor to be reckoned with in determining the liability of one who has damaged another in any way. In court the perpetrator of damage can only be held responsible and bound to compensation when his action has been attended with moral responsibility, such as when the action has been done freely and advertently.

Negligent acts often lead to accidents. The law of negligence deals with who should be held liable for doing something which causes another person to be injured.

The absence of this degree of care on the part of an agent is assumed by the civil law to be culpable, and is punished with the penalties provided. Thus the common law generally distinguishes three classes of recklessness as follows: gross negligence is the failure to employ even the smallest amount of care, such as any person, no matter how heedless, would use for the safeguarding of his own interests; ordinary negligence is the failure to exercise ordinary care, such as a person of ordinary capacity and capable of governing a family would take of his own affairs; slight negligence is the failure to bring to bear a high degree of care, such as very thoughtful persons would maintain in looking after their own interests.

Comparative disregard occurs when it is alleged that both parties were negligent in causing an accident. In this case, the responsibility to the other person is reduced by one’s own degree of negligence.

The percentage is used to show how much carelessness a party contributed to causing the accident. The civil law may and does impose the obligation of reparation for harm wrought not only where ordinary and gross slackness are shown, but also at times when only slight negligence holds good likewise in conscience, once the decision of the judge decreeing it has been rendered.