Negligence is basically failing to do something one should do, or doing something a reasonable person would not do. Running a stop sign and crushing into another vehicle is a common example.
Negligence lawsuits are filed against an entity or person who failed to be reasonably cautious in their actions, or when providing a product or service to patients or customers. Many times negligence lawsuits are directed toward specific industry professionals where accidents occur that are out of their control such as medical professionals, but negligence lawsuits can be directed at any person or entity whose actions led to the injury of another based on how negligent those actions were.
In order to have any grounds for a negligence lawsuit, it must be proven that harm was actually caused by unreasonable actions on the part of the negligent party. It must also be shown that these injuries could have been avoided if the responsible party had been more careful and utilized a “duty to care.”