What Is A Tort?
Brian O Sutter
Personal Injury
For the average American, talking about the legal process and how things get settled in courts will usually conjure images of judges, fiery lawyers presenting passionate arguments, surprise witness testimonies, a jury watching the events unfold, and terms like verdict, conviction and lawsuit. All of these ideas and images come to Americans largely through the television and films they watch, or the fiction they read. As a result of courtroom activity being portrayed in this manner for entertainment purposes, a lot of common legal procedure and terminology is often left out. So, despite the fact that it’s actually one of the most common legal activities to take place in court, few people in the general public are familiar with the word “tort.” Today, we’re going to explain what it is.
Two Sides Of The Law
Laws exist to provide a sense of order and structure to society, laying out clear rules for what is permissible and what isn’t. Roughly speaking, laws are divided into two types; criminal and civil. Criminal law is the more serious law, and breaking a criminal law is what results in a conviction from a jury and a jail sentence. Theft, murder, and even “white collar” crimes like insider trading all fall under criminal law.
Civil law on the other hand means that a person has broken a law, but because that law isn’t as serious, no criminal punishment is required, Driving too fast on the highway and being issued a ticket is one example of breaking a civil—specifically a traffic—law, but another example is negligence at an auto-repair garage, such as leaving a pool of motor oil unattended on the floor where someone can slip on it and an injury occurs, which might then require a slip and fall personal injury attorney to handle the case.
Civil Disagreements
A tort is when a civil disagreement occurs and people go to court to settle it. The legal term for it is a “civil wrong,” and there are many different types of torts. Spreading false or malicious rumors about someone, or spying on them would be dignitary tort. Fabricating false financial reports in order to steal money from a company would be an economic tort. And carelessness with a property that results in someone getting injured would be a negligence tort.
All of these different violations fall under the category of tort law. The word “tort” itself comes from the Latin “tortum” which means to twist. In spirit, it simply means that a duty or responsibility was not met, and now consequences are required for this failure of obligation.
How It Works
In American courts, this simply means that a tort specialist, such as a personal injury lawyer, now goes to court—complete with a jury—to present evidence to that jury to decide whether or not a wronged or aggrieved party deserves the compensation that is being sought. On the opposing side, the party to which the tort is directed against will attempt to convince the jury that the argument is unfounded and no compensation is required. This is the part of the legal journey that you should never undertake alone. Always use an experienced personal injury lawyer to help you in these affairs.