You’ve probably heard of the term gross negligence. But do you know exactly what it means? Let’s find out, and also discover what the legal penalties for it are.
What is gross negligence?
In legal terms, gross negligence refers to a person having a conscious lack of care and reckless disregard for the safety of others. Basically, it’s a more serious form of negligence. It falls in between the intent to do wrongful harm and standard negligence.
Gross negligence isn’t only reckless behavior. It’s also willful behavior that affects the life or property of an individual.
It’s more harmful than ordinary negligence because gross negligence implies a thoughtless disregard of actions’ consequences and a failure to use any care to avoid harming people or their property.
Due to gross negligence being more severe than normal negligence, it means those who are found to be responsible for gross negligence are typically responsible for paying out higher damages than with ordinary negligence.
Examples of Gross Negligence
To get a better idea of what exactly gross negligence is, let’s look at some examples.
Common types of gross negligence include:
- A driver intentionally speeding down a road where the driver knows there are lots of children playing outdoors.
- A senior caregiver neglecting to provide an elderly patient with food or water over several days.
- A surgeon leaves behind a foreign object inside a person, such as a medical sponge or surgical instrument, after surgery.
- A restaurant knowingly serving food that is undercooked or not preparing food in the correct way.
Don’t let the last example put you off eating out, though! Most restaurants ensure they maintain very high standards, such as the wonderful Bob Evans restaurants.
What are the legal penalties of gross negligence?
The legal penalties for people or organizations that have claims for gross negligence brought against them go beyond the penalties incurred for ordinary negligence.
In both ordinary and gross negligence claims in which the defendant is found guilty, the defendant must pay compensatory damages to the injured party.
The financial compensation will help the injured party to be reimbursed for things like medical bills for their injuries and economic losses due to being unable to work.
Financial compensatory damages can also be awarded to pay for things like the injured party’s future loss of wages, attorney fees, and administrative court costs.
But the legal penalties for a person or organization that’s found guilty of gross negligence aren’t limited to solely financial compensatory damages.
The injured party may be able to recover punitive damages, depending on the specific facts of the case and the exact laws of the jurisdiction.
The purpose of punitive damages is to deter the party responsible for the gross negligence from participating in other dangerous activities in the future.
For punitive damages to be ordered against the defendant, it must be proven that the defendant acted with enough recklessness or offensiveness towards the injured party.
Usually, when punitive damages are awarded, they are very large sums of money. So, if you’re injured as a result of gross negligence, you must sue for negligence.
You should contact a reputable and experienced lawyer who specializes in gross negligence cases. He or she will then be able to help you explore your legal options and obtain the compensation you deserve while making the guilty party accountable.
You could be awarded both compensatory damages and punitive damages.
Summing Up
In short, gross negligence is about someone causing damage to a person or property via both reckless and willful behavior.
If you’re a victim of gross negligence, you can at least pursue compensatory and punitive damages to hold the guilty party to account and gain funds to help you cover the costs of things like medical bills and lost earnings.