To start, tort law is an area of law that protects people from other people’s negligent actions. Its purpose is to ensure that the victim is compensated for any losses caused by the wrongdoer’s violation and to discourage them from making the same violation in the future.
Some common examples of tort or negligence-based claims include car accidents, construction accidents, medical malpractice, and slip and falls. Other examples of tort are civil assault or civil battery, wrongful death claims, trespassing, product liability and dangerous products, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Tort Classifications
1. Understanding negligence torts
To prove negligence, you will need evidence that someone owed you a duty of reasonable care and then breached that duty, which caused your injuries. For example, a shop owner mopped the floor and did not put up a wet floor sign” then he slipped, fell and got injured. In this case, the owner could be considered negligent because the owner owed a duty of care to their customers to keep the store safe. But they did not perform their duty which resulted in an injury.
Torts may be classified into intentional torts, unintentional torts, and strict liability torts. When talking about strict liability, it can be said that they are of three types, product liability, dangerous activities, and owning wild animals. In product liability, the main area of dealing comes from cases of harm or injury experienced by an individual. For wild animals’ criteria, the owners of these animals will be held liable if the conditions fall under the law.
2. Understanding intentional torts
Intentional torts can be seen as quite the opposite of negligence torts. As its name suggests, this type of felony relates to individuals who intend to break the law. Some of the intentional torts include the following.
- The battery is the act of making unwanted, harmful, and offensive contact with another individual.
- Assault describes the attempts made by a person to cause harm or pose a physical threat to another individual.
- Fraud is about making false claims to another person or lying and making misrepresentations.
- Trespass is when a person uses another person’s property without their consent and permission.
- Infliction of emotional distress –when a person intentionally causes emotional distress by manipulation, gaslighting, or any other mental distress caused.
3. Understanding strict liability torts
These scenarios can be deemed a combination of negligence and intentional torts, which will become more obvious after looking at some of them below.
- Product liability relates to when a defective product sold to the public by manufacturers, retailers, or suppliers causes physical or mental harm to the consumer.
- Owning wild animals –this is imposed on owners of wild animals in the case that their animal escapes out in the open and harms or injures the public.
- Exceptionally dangerous activities – for example, vehicles carrying hazardous chemicals or items are liable if they cause any harm due to spillage or explosion.
Hiring an attorney
It is important to hire an attorney since tort laws cover a wide area of legal exercise. However, this will require additional professional training, which will enable adequate valid strategies to assist you in dealing with tort cases. But do keep in mind that every state has multiple rules and regulations that are interested in tort rules and regulations.
The main reason an attorney is required is that they are experts and have accurate knowledge regarding their area of the law, so they will be able to guide you through the whole legal procedure skillfully.
One of the main advantages is that they will instruct you on the stability of your case if you have tolerated any injuries and would like to file for a lawsuit. Most importantly, an attorney will counsel and deliver the best information and look after your concerns when you extensively require it.
Moreover, the attorney will assist you with the accurate documentation and certainly instruct you on legal protocols since you might not be able to do that on your own when you sustain an injury.
Tort Laws Remedies You Need To Know About
This information is necessary since it will guide you depending on the character and how serious the tort case is because different tort laws remedies will pertain. There are three tort laws remedies included in the tort laws to learn about:
Legal Remedies:
This remedy will reimburse people who have been victims of destruction, losses, injuries, as well as pain that mainly happened because of the tort.
Institutional Remedies:
The purpose of this remedy is to save the victim from the state they were residing in before the tort accident happened. It is also used to assure the defendant of a penalty for any unlawfully collected profits.
Equitable Remedies:
Equitable remedies happen when financial payment may not sufficiently deal with the effects of the tort. The purpose of this remedy is that it can include provisional restraining orders or maybe the injunction that restricts the defendants from any illegal activity.
Is Texas tort law different from other states?
You might be surprised to find this, but the state of Texas itself is known as a tort reform state. Although there are various unique features of tort reform, some of the most common ones are no statutory damages, comparative negligence, Texas advance directives act, and Texas tort claims act.
In simple words, Texas does not allow statutory damages in any way, shape, or form. The Texas tort claim act claims to permit any individual living in Texas to file a lawsuit against any sort of government entity. Although these changes and laws are designed to fit state policies, there are still areas in tort reform that are constantly changing.
Conclusion
So to conclude, it could be said the tort law is designed to eliminate the imbalance in the government’s policies. The whole purpose of tort law is to protect the needs and interests of people who have been in wrongdoers’ cases.
