Gross negligence is the "lack of slight diligence or care" or "a conscious, voluntary act or omission in reckless disregard of a legal duty and of the consequences to another party." In some jurisdictions a person injured as a result of gross negligence may be able to recover

punitive damages Punitive damages, or exemplary damages, are damages assessed in order to punish the defendant for outrageous conduct and/or to reform or deter the defendant and others from engaging in conduct similar to that which formed the basis of the lawsuit. ...

from the person who caused the injury or loss.

Negligence Negligence (Lat. ''negligentia'') is a failure to exercise appropriate and/or ethical ruled care expected to be exercised amongst specified circumstances. The area of tort law known as ''negligence'' involves harm caused by failing to act as ...

is the opposite of

diligence Diligence—carefulness and persistent effort or work—is one of the seven heavenly virtues. It is indicative of a work ethic, the belief that work is good in itself. In students Bernard et al. suggest that diligence in students is defin ...

, or being careful. The standard of ordinary negligence is what conduct deviates from the proverbial "

reasonable person In law, a reasonable person, reasonable man, or the man on the Clapham omnibus, is a hypothetical person of legal fiction crafted by the courts and communicated through case law and jury instructions. Strictly according to the fiction, it ...

". By extension, if somebody has been grossly negligent, that means they have fallen so far below the ordinary standard of care that one can expect, to warrant the label of being "gross". Gross negligence may thus be described as reflecting "the want of even slight or scant care", falling below the level of care that even a careless person would be expected to follow. While some jurisdictions equate the

culpability In criminal law, culpability, or being culpable, is a measure of the degree to which an agent, such as a person, can be held morally or legally responsible for action and inaction. It has been noted that the word, culpability, "ordinarily ha ...

of gross negligence with that of recklessness, most differentiate it from simple negligence in its degree.

Criminal law

''Gross negligence'' is used as a standard for criminal law, for example, under manslaughter in English law. Under common law, criminal negligence is defined as a gross deviation from a reasonable standard of care. This is a higher standard than ordinary negligence under tort law. In the U.K., a conviction for gross negligence manslaughter requires that the prosecutor prove the existence of a duty of care, breach of that duty by the defendant resulting in death, and a risk of death that would be obvious to a reasonable prudent person in the position of the defendant.

Private law

English law

The concept of gross negligence is broadly distrusted by English law. In ''Wilson v Brett'', Baron Rolfe (later Lord Cranworth) said he: This view has been consistently approved in English law relating to fiduciary duties, as the courts have reasserted that there is only one standard of culpable carelessness: ordinary negligence. The preferred view has been that the context of a trustee, company director or other fiduciary's judgment is to be taken into account when the judge reviews the exercise of discretion. In ''Houghland v RR Low (Luxury Coaches) Ltd'' Ormerod LJ said, The

leading case Landmark court decisions, in present-day common law legal systems, establish precedents that determine a significant new legal principle or concept, or otherwise substantially affect the interpretation of existing law. "Leading case" is commonly ...

is '' Armitage v Nurse'' where

Millett LJ Peter Julian Millett, Baron Millett, , (23 June 1932 – 27 May 2021) was a British barrister and judge. He was a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary from 1998 to 2004. Biography Early life The son of Denis and Adele Millett, he was educated at Ha ...

, was asked to decide whether an exclusion clause was effective to absolve a trustee from an accusation of negligence when applying property to beneficiaries. It was held that exclusion clauses were still effective (though other remedies could follow, such as

UCTA 1977 The Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977c 50 is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom which regulates contracts by restricting the operation and legality of some contract terms. It extends to nearly all forms of contract and one of its most impor ...

in a contract law case) but on the point of principle, as a default position all trustees are liable for ordinary negligence. Millett LJ said,

United States

Under United States law, proof of gross negligence involves proving all of the elements of an ordinary negligence action, plus the additional element that the defendant acted in reckless disregard of, or with a lack of substantial concern for, the rights of others. For some causes of action that might trigger defenses such as

governmental immunity Sovereign immunity, or crown immunity, is a legal doctrine whereby a sovereign or state cannot commit a legal wrong and is immune from civil suit or criminal prosecution, strictly speaking in modern texts in its own courts. A similar, stronger ...

, it may be necessary to prove gross negligence in order to overcome the defense.

Roman law

Roman lawyers had an axiom that gross negligence amounts to an intentional wrong, or ''culpa lata dolo aequiparatur''.

Notes