Tort Law

Tort

A violation of another person's rights or a civil wrongdoing that does not arise out of a contract or statute; primary types are Intentional, negligent, and strict liability torts.

Intentional tort

A category of torts that describes a civil wrong resulting from an intentional act on the part of the tortfeasor (alleged wrongdoer). Intentional torts include assault, battery, conversion, false imprisonment, intentional infliction of emotional distress, etc.

Negligent tort

Negligent torts are not deliberate actions, but instead, present when an individual or entity fails to act as a reasonable person to someone whom he or she owes a duty to. E.g. when a defendant is careless, to someone else's detriment.

Strict-liability tort

A civil wrong that occurs when the defendant takes an action that is inherently dangerous and can not ever be undertaken safely, no matter what precautions the defendant takes. In such situations, a defendant is liable for the plaintiff's damage without any requirement that the plaintiff proves that the defendant was negligent

Assault

This is a civil wrong that occurs when one person intentionally and voluntarily places another in fear or apprehension of an immediate, offensive physical harm. Assault does not require actual contact.

Battery

This is a civil wrong that occurs when one person intentionally and voluntarily brings about a nonconsent harmful or offensive contact with a person or something closely associated with him or her. Battery requires an actual contact.

Defamation

Is a false statement or an action that harms the reputation or character of an individual, business, product, group, government, or nation.

Absolute Privilege

This is a special right, immunity, permission, or benefit given to certain individuals that allow them to make any statements about someone without being held liable for defamation for any false statement made, regardless of intent or knowledge of the falsity of the claim.

Conditional Priviledge

This is a special right, immunity, permission, or benefit given to certain individuals that allow them to make any statements about someone without being held liable for defamation for any false statement made without actual malice.

Actual Malice

In defamation, either a person's knowledge that his or her statement or published material is false or the person's reckless disregard for whether it is false.

Public Figure Priviledge

This is a special right, immunity, or permission given to people that allow them to make any statements about public figures, typically politicians and entertainers, without being held liable for defamation for any false statement made without malice.

Trespass to Realty

A tort that occurs when someone goes on another's property without permission places something on another's property without permission.

Private Nuisance

This is a nuisance that affects only a single person or a very limited number of individuals.

Trespass to Personal Property

This is the temporary interference with another's use or enjoyment of his or her personal property.

Conversion

The permanent interference with another's use and enjoyment of his or her persona; property.

Disparagement

This is a business tort that occurs when a statement is intentionally used to defame a business product or service

Slander of Quality

This is a business tort that occurs when false spoken statements criticize a business product or service and result in a loss of slaes.

Trade Libel

A business tort that occurs when false printed statements criticize a business product or service and result in a loss of sales.

Slander of Title

A business tort occurs when false published statements are related to the ownership of the business property

Food Disparagement

A tort that provides ranchers and farmers with a cause of action when someone spreads false information about the safety of a food product.

Intentional Interference with Contract

This tort occurs when someone intentionally takes an action that will cause a person to breach a contract that he or she has with another.

Unfair Competition

That act of competing with another not to make a profit but for the sole purpose of driving that other out of business.

Fraudulent misrepresentation

The tort that occurs when a misrepresentation is made with the intent to facilitate personal gain and with the knowledge that it is false.

Negligence

A behavior that creates an unreasonable risk of harm to others

Reasonable person standard

Is a measurement of the way members of society expect an individual to act in a given situation.

Actual cause

The determination that the defendant's breach of duty resulted directly in the plaintiff's injury.

Proximate cause

The extent to which, as a matter pf policy, a defendant may be held liable for the consequences of his or her actions. In the majority of states, proximate cause requires that the plaintiff and the plaintiff's damages were foreseeable at the time of the accident. In the minority of states, proximate cause exists if the defendant's actions led to the plaintiff's harm.

Compensatory damages

Money awarded to a plaintiff as reimbursement for his or her losses; based on the actual amount of damage or harm to property, lost wages or profits, pain, sufferin, medical expenses, disability, etc.

Punitive damages

Compensation awarded to a plaintiff that goes beyond reimbursement for actual losses and is imposed to punish the defendant and deter such conduct in the future.

Gross negligence

An action committed with extreme reckless disregard for the property or life of another person.

res ipsa loquitur: "the thing speaks for itself"

A doctrine that allows the judge or jury to infer that, more likely than not, the defendant's negligence was the cause of the plaintiff's harm, even though there is no direct evidence of the defendant's lack of due care.

negligence per se: "negligence in or of itself"

A doctrine that allows a judge or jury to infer duty and breach of duty from the fact that a defendant violated a criminal statute that was designed to prevent the type of harm that the plaintiff incurred.

Contributory negligence

A defense to negligence whereby the defendant can escape all liability by proving that the plaintiff failed to act in a way that would protect him or her from an unreasonable risk of harm and that the plaintiff's negligent behavior contributed in some way to the plaintiff's accident.

Last-clear-chance doctrine

A doctrine used by the plaintiff when the defendant establishes contributory negligence. If the plaintiff can establish that the defendant had the last opportunity to avoid the accident, the plaintiff may still recover, despite being contributorily negligent.

Pure comparative negligence

A defense accepted in some states whereby the defendant is not liable for the percentage of harm that he or she can prove is due to the plaintiff's own negligence.

Modified comparative negligence

A defense accepted in some states whereby the defendant is not liable for the percentage of harm that he or she can prove is due to the plaintiff's own negligence if the plaintiff's negligence is responsible for less than 50 percent of the harm; if the defendant establishes that the plaintiff's negligence caused more than 50 percent of the harm, the defendant has no liability.

Assumption of the risk

A defense whereby the defendant must prove that the plaintiff voluntarily assumed the risk the defendant caused.

Good Samaritan statute

A statute that exempts from liability a person, such as a physician passerby, who voluntarily renders aid to an injured person but negligently, but not unreasonably negligently, causes injury while rendering the aid.

Strict liability

Liability in which responsibility for damages is imposed regardless of the existence of negligence. It is also called "liability without fault.

Tortfeasor

A person who commits an intentional or through negligence tort that causes a harm or loss for which a civil remedy may be sought.

Nominal damages

Monetary damages awarded to a plaintiff in a very small amount, typically $1 to $5, to signify that the plaintiff has been wronged by the defendant even though the plaintiff suffered no compensable harm.