A Tort is the French word for a "wrong." A tort is a civil wrong. A civil wrong involves a breach of a duty owed to someone else, as opposed to criminal wrongdoing which involves a breach of a duty owed to society. Torts are civil wrongs other than breaches of contract and certain equitable wrongs.
The law of torts law is a remainder category of civil wrongs once other wrongs are excluded. It covers a grab bag of legal cases comprising such disparate topics as auto accidents, false imprisonment, slander and libel, product liability (such as defectively designed consumer products), and environmental pollution (toxic torts).
A person who suffers legal damage may be able to use tort law to receive damages (usually monetary compensation) from someone who is responsible or liable for those injuries. Generally speaking, tort law defines what is a legal injury and what is not. A person may be held liable (responsible to pay) for another 's injury caused by them. Torts can be classified in a number of different ways, one is to distinguish according to degree of fault, so that there are intentional torts, negligent torts, and strict liability torts.
In much of the Western world, the measure of tort liability is negligence. If the injured party cannot prove that the person believed to have caused the injury acted with negligence (lack of reasonable care), at the very least, tort law will not compensate (pay) the victim. However, tort law also recognizes intentional (purposeful) torts and strict liability torts, which apply when the person accused of committing the tort satisfied certain standards of intent (meaning) and/or performed certain types of conduct.
In tort law, injury is defined broadly. Injury does not just mean a physical injury, such as where Brenda was struck by a ball. Injuries in tort law reflect any invasion of any number of individual interests. This includes interests recognized in other areas of law, such as
Bibliography: • [1959] 3 All ER 225 (Court of Appeal • (1933) 1 KB 205 • II (2001) ACC 392, 2001 (2) ALT 185 [1999] RD-SC 411 [12] (1933) 1 KB 205 [13] [1963] 2 QB 23 [20] II (2001) ACC 392, 2001 (2) ALT 185 5 [21] [1999] RD-SC 411