Can anyone explain what this means?

[studentabc]

culpably negligent
out of culpable ignorance

I know culpable means blameworthy but the phrase culpable ignorance is confusing. Does it mean someone deserves ignorance???

[ghmcal]

"Culpably negligent" is a common term from American law. It means, very briefly, that someone was negligent in a way that makes them legally liable for the results.

"Culpable ignorance" is not a common legal term, but it means something similar. A person is culpably ignorant if they should have known something but didn't. This can be important in legal cases.

For example, imagine that a doctor gave some medicine to a patient and the patient died from the medication. If the patient's family sued the doctor, the doctor might say, "But I didn't know that this medication was dangerous." If, however, the fact that the medication can kill was commonly known by other doctors - if it was in many books and the company that made the medication knew it and so on - the doctor could be called "culpably ignorant." That is, it may be true that the doctor didn't know the medication was dangerous, but he should have known - it's his job to know, and he could have easily learned.

George

[Tomasz Klimkiewicz]

A great reply.
I read it with pleasure and found the information very useful.

In my work I often deal with legal documents in English and even now can remember contexts where one of the above phrases would fit in very nicely.

Regards,
TeeKay