Under Wisconsin law, everyone owes a duty to everyone else to use ordinary care in all of his or her activities. A person is negligent when he or she, without intending to do harm, does something or fails to do something that a reasonable person would recognize as creating an unreasonable risk of injury or damage to a person or property. In the broadest sense, negligence means carelessness, and a person is negligent when he or she acts carelessly.

To recover damages in negligence cases, a plaintiff must not only prove that the defendant was negligent, but also that the plaintiff’s injuries and damages were caused by the defendant’s negligence.

Some examples of general negligence include:

• Collapse of building due to negligent construction
  
• Negligent inspection of vehicle by mechanic, resulting in mechanical failure
  
• Negligent supervision
  
• Negligent hiring
  
• Negligent failure to secure livestock, resulting in animals getting loose on highway
  
• Inadequate security

A sample of Cannon & Dunphy's previous results in General Negligence cases:

• $1.56 million settlement awarded to a cheerleader who sustained a quadriparetic injury due to the negligent supervision of the university cheerleading program.





• $1.5 million settlement. A distraught man left alone in a police holding cell used in violation of state order tried to hang himself. He sustained permanent brain damage.





• $1.5 million settlement in an assault and rape case against a Florida motel.





• $1.25 million settlement awarded for spinal cord injuries sustained by a 21-year-old in a diving accident.





• $1.2 million settlement for wrongful death of inmate at Milwaukee County Jail who was denied medical treatment for his diabetes.





• $1.1 million settlement awarded to a man who became a paraplegic as a result of being thrown from a horse at a country club's "Western Days"

The results depend on the facts of each case.