Tort is a body of law that provides remedies, usually in the form of monetary compensation, for victims who sustained physical injuries caused by another person. Similarly, an individual who suffers from emotional distress caused by someone can also use Tort to claim damages.
Recoverable Damages Under Personal Injury Law
Under the Tort Law, a personal injury accident claim is allowed to be used to recover economic damages including hospital expenses, loss of wage and non-economic damages such as pain and suffering.
Categories of Tort Law
Tort law is divided into three categories:
Intentional Torts
A person intentionally harms another individual. Cases of intentional torts include battery, assault, Libel (written statement that harms a person’s reputation), slander (spoken words that harm other’s reputation), invasion of privacy, false imprisonment, Malicious Prosecution, and intentional infliction of emotion pain.
Negligence Causing Injury
A person who has a legal obligation to provide safety to others fails to do his duty and his negligent act causes injuries to another individual. Cases of negligent tort usually include car accidents.
To recover damages, the injured victims should prove the following:
- The defendant has a legal duty to provide safety to other people
- The defendant failed to do his legal duty
- The defendant’s negligence or failure to do his legal duty has caused the injuries
- The injured party has experienced damages
Strict Liability Torts: Defective Products
A person has a legal responsibility for injuries and damages, even if he or she is not at fault or negligent. This tort is usually used in lawsuits involving defective products.
By law, strict liability allows people to recover damages after using defective and harmful products. Meanwhile, here are the three types of product liability claims:
- Manufacturing Defect: The product, which is made of substandard materials, has caused injuries to a person.
- Design Defect: While the product is made of strong materials, its flawed design has caused injuries to a person.
- Failure to warn: Because of improper labeling or lack of warning signs, a person has incorrectly used a product, causing physical injuries
