care

Care means watchful attention, prudence, diligence . Care is the opposite of negligence or carelessness and the amount of care to be exercised in a particular situation is determined by standard of conduct which may be expected from a person in that situation.

In law, there are mainly three degrees of care:

  1. Slight care is the degree of care persons of ordinary prudence exercise concerning their own affairs of slight importance.
  2. Reasonable (or ordinary) care is that degree of care which may reasonably be expected from an ordinarily prudent and rational person in similar circumstances. Therefore, this is a subjective standard of determining if the person exercised proper care.
  3. Great care is the degree of care which is greater than what is usually conferred on persons of ordinary prudence under similar circumstances.

[Last reviewed in June of 2021 by the Wex Definitions Team ]

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