Negligence is the broader term: any failure to take proper care that ends up causing harm, whether that is a fire caused by carelessness or a company found liable after faulty equipment. Malpractice is a narrower, professional version of negligence, used when a doctor, lawyer or other professional mistreats someone they are meant to be caring for.
The core difference
Negligence is careless harm in general; malpractice is negligence by a professional acting in their professional role.
- negligence — a failure to take proper care that causes harm: The court found the company liable for negligence after the equipment failed.
- malpractice — negligent or improper conduct by a professional, causing harm: The family sued the hospital for medical malpractice.
How to tell them apart
Think of malpractice as negligence with a professional standing behind it. Any person or organisation can be negligent, from a homeowner who leaves a fire hazard unattended to a manufacturer whose equipment fails. Malpractice narrows that down to someone in a position of professional trust, such as a doctor treating a patient or a lawyer mishandling a client's funds, who falls short of what their profession demands.
This mix-up shows up most often in medical and legal news coverage, where headlines about a doctor being sued can use either word. A useful memory hook: malpractice literally means bad practice, tying it to a specific professional practice, while negligence can describe carelessness anywhere, professional or not.
