Gross negligence

Gross negligence is generally defined as a lack of even slight diligence or care, or as a conscious, voluntary act or omission carried out in reckless disregard of a legal duty, and in some jurisdictions a party injured by gross negligence may recover punitive damages from the person responsible. Where ordinary negligence measures conduct against the standard of a reasonable person, gross negligence falls far below even that already modest bar, describing a want of even slight or scant care that would fail to meet the expectations placed on even a careless individual. Most jurisdictions treat gross negligence as differing from ordinary negligence in degree rather than in kind, though some legal systems equate its culpability with recklessness; English law nonetheless traditionally keeps gross negligence, however severe the carelessness, distinct from fraud or willful misconduct, treating the two as fundamentally different categories. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/