Negligence, neglect are not always clearly distinguished in use, even though the lines between them may be drawn with some clearness.
Negligence stresses the quality or fact of being negligent or careless either as shown in a lack of care in the performance of a task, a duty, or a piece of work or in the operation or handling of a dangerous machine or mechanism which requires effort or close attention or as shown in a temperamental or assumed indifference to small niceties (as in dress, manners, or style) that gives an impression of casualness, artlessness, or lack of artificiality.
Neglect, on the other hand, applies either to the act or fact of leaving undone or carelessly, inadequately, or imperfectly done something which it is one’s business or duty to do or to the state or fact of being neglected, slighted, ignored, or forgotten.
For these reasons the phrase “the negligence of a person” always refers to a quality of character of the person as an agent or to its outward manifestation (as in an act, a piece of work, or an accident) while “the neglect of a person” refers to the act of another who neglects, slights, ignores, or forgets the person, thereby making the latter his victim.