A tort is a wrongful act or omission that hurts someone else and generates a claim for compensation. Anything from punching someone in the nose to manufacturing a dangerous consumer product can constitute a tort. Knowing the types of available tort liability can help you decide how to pursue a claim against someone who wrongfully injured you.
What Is an Intentional Tort?
An intentional tort is the consequence of a conscious decision to perform an act. If I push someone intentionally, I commit an intentional tort. I can bear liability for any injuries even if I didn’t intend to hurt anyone. Common intentional torts include:
- Assault: An act that causes you to expect immediate harmful or offensive contact–pointing a gun at you, for example.
- Battery: Actually committing a harmful or offensive contact. Punching you in the nose, for example.
- False Imprisonment: Locking you in a closet during an argument, for example. This tort has nothing in particular to do with the police or the judicial system.
- Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress (IIED): Intentionally or recklessly outrageous behavior that causes you severe emotional distress–putting a snake in your bed when I know you have a phobia of snakes, for example.
- Trespass to Land: Physically invading someone else’s land. To constitute an intentional tort, you must have known that you were trespassing.
- Trespass to Chattels: Interfering with someone else’s right to the exclusive use of their property. Taking their tractor for a “joy ride” for example.
- Conversion: Exercising control over someone else’s property in a manner that seriously interferes with their right to exclusive possession of it. You loan me something and I sell it to someone else without your permission, for example.
The foregoing is only a partial list of intentional torts.
What Is a Negligence Claim?
A negligence claim is an assertion that someone’s careless behavior injured you. The person who performed the act is typically (but not always) the defendant. An employer can bear liability for their employee’s wrongful act, for example. To win a negligence claim, you need to prove the following elements:
- Duty of Care: Everyone except small children and mentally incompetent people have a duty to exercise reasonable care to avoid hurting others. A professional, such as a doctor, might have an elevated duty of care while practicing their profession.
- Breach of Duty: Someone breaches their duty of care when they fail to meet its demands. They might run a red light, for example, or fail to warn their restaurant customers about a wet floor.
- Causation: The defendant’s negligence must have actually caused the accident that the victim is complaining about. Additionally, the accident must have been a foreseeable consequence of the defendant’s negligence (proximate cause).
- Measurable Damages: The accident must have caused harm. Typically, that means some sort of physical injury, but psychological harms such as pain and suffering and humiliation are also measurable.
You must prove all four elements of your negligence claim by a legal standard called “a preponderance of the evidence.”
What Is a Strict Liability Claim?
“Strict liability” means liability without proof of fault. You don’t have to prove fault to win certain types of defective product claims, for example. Another type of strict liability claim is called “abnormally dangerous activities.”
Do You Need a Georgia Personal Injury Lawyer?
You might not need a lawyer to help you with a minor injury claim. The more serious your injury, however, the larger your compensation claim will probably be. The larger your claim, the harder the defendant will fight to win. Contact an attorney today to schedule a free consultation and learn about your legal options.
