Insurance Term of the Day: Negligence

To neglect something is to avoid responsibility. What do you normally neglect? For me, itโ€™s dishes. I love food, and I love to cook. By the time Iโ€™m done cooking and eating, Iโ€™m ready to lay down and rest. When itโ€™s breakfast time the next morning, and thereโ€™s no clean dishes to cook with, thereโ€™s no one to get mad at but myself for neglecting to do my job.

It is similar in the insurance world. Negligence can be described as โ€œfailure to act reasonably in response to a certain situation which has the potential to cause harm or damage to a person and/or property.โ€ Basically, if your own failure to act reasonably to prevent an incident causes harm to another individual, this is considered negligence on your part. Negligence helps to determine fault; itโ€™s how it is decided if a person is liable for an event because of carelessness that led to an injury, an accident, or damage to property.

Say, for example, you saw a car coming at a quick speed while you were yielding to turn left. You decide to turn anyway, resulting in a car accident. The insurance company can decide that the accident was due to your own negligence, and, in result, refuse a pay-out on your claim. (This depends on whether negligence is within your states laws.) In this case, basically, there is no one to blame but yourself, so you canโ€™t expect your insurance to pay for the damages you caused.

If you are continually trying to do the best thing, you wonโ€™t have to worry if negligence comes into play.


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