The Law of Torts

If someone's actions cause harm, you could have a tort case.

Many lawsuits are based on breach of contract, the failure of one party to live up to his part of an agreement. In most civil lawsuits, however, your claim will be based on the law of torts.

A tort is the action (or in some cases, inaction) of another which injures you or damages your property, and which was the result of the negligence or the intentional misconduct of the person who committed it.

A tort of negligence occurs when the person who causes you to suffer a loss fails to exercise a reasonable amount of care under the circumstances. For example, suppose you are driving home from work one day when a car fails to stop for a stop sign and strikes your vehicle broadside. The driver of the other car didn't see the stop sign because he was busy tuning the car radio to his favorite talk show. In doing so, he committed a tort of negligence, and you can file suit for the damages you suffered because of that negligence.

In determining whether a person is guilty of a tort of negligence, the court asks whether or not the person accused of the tort acted as a "reasonably prudent person" would act in the same situation.

By a reasonably prudent person, the law generally means an adult of average age and experience who suffers from no physical or mental disability. However, when judging the conduct of someone who is physically disabled, the law compares that person's conduct to what would be reasonably expected of a person with the same disability.

While the law makes this concession in judging the actions of the physically disabled, it doesn't make a similar concession for those who suffer from a mental disability. So, for example, a person who would be considered mentally incompetent and unable to face criminal charges could still be sued for damages in a civil lawsuit.

An intentional tort occurs when someone deliberately takes some action (or fails to act) in a way that causes you harm. Some of the more common kinds of intentional torts include assault (putting you in fear of an imminent attack) and battery (actually touching you in an offensive matter). Fraud, conversion (stealing your property) and false imprisonment (confining you against your will) are other intentional torts, as are libel and slander (defaming you or damaging your reputation).

Another kind of intentional tort occurs when someone causes you emotional anguish through outrageous conduct. For example, suppose you break up with a person you dated for a few weeks. Instead of merely going away and getting on with his life, this person begins to send you sexually explicit and threatening letters and leaves bouquets of dead flowers on your doorstep. He begins to call you hundreds of times a day, hanging up as soon as you answer the phone. As a result, you are afraid to go out in public. You have nightmares, become physically ill, and are unable to go to work for days and weeks at a time.

This tort is known as the intentional infliction of emotional distress, and a person who engages in this kind of outrageous behavior can be liable for damages in a civil lawsuit, in addition to the criminal charges he might face for his conduct as a stalker.

In some states, and in some cases, it isn't necessary to show either negligence or intentional misconduct in order to bring a successful civil suit. Under the legal doctrine of strict liability, you may be able to recover for injuries you suffer as the result of another's activities without having to prove that they did anything other than engaging in the activities.

For example, suppose you buy a paint sprayer which runs off an air compressor. When you use it according to the instructions provided by the manufacturer, the paint jar of the sprayer explodes, cutting your hand and lodging a shard of plastic in your eye.

Under the doctrine of strict liability, you can receive compensation for your damages without showing that the manufacturer of the sprayer did anything other than market a product that was unreasonably dangerous. You don't have to show how the product's defect came into being; you only have to show that the product was defective, that the manufacturer offered the product for sale (in legal terms, "allowed it to enter the stream of commerce") and that your injury resulted from using the defective product.

Not every state has recognized the doctrine of strict liability, however, and in the states that have not you must still show that the manufacturer was negligent in allowing the defective product to reach the public.