Tort law

Damages in Tort Law Introduction A tort is not merely a legal wrong. It is also a wrong that may cause loss. A person may suffer a physical injury, lose income, experience emotional distress, damage property, or endure harm to reputation. Tort law provides remedies designed to respond to those Read more

Frolic and Detour Introduction An employee does not always perform a job in a perfectly straight line. A delivery driver may stop for lunch. A salesperson may briefly visit a pharmacy. An employee running an errand for an employer may make a personal stop along the way. These situations raise Read more

Employee vs. Independent Contractor Liability Introduction One of the most important questions in tort law is deceptively simple: Who is legally responsible when a worker causes harm? The answer may depend on whether the person who caused the harm was an employee or an independent contractor. The distinction matters because Read more

Respondeat Superior Introduction Respondeat superior is a doctrine of tort law under which an employer may be held legally responsible for certain torts committed by an employee while acting within the scope of employment. The Latin phrase roughly means “let the superior answer.” The basic idea is simple: When an Read more

Vicarious Liability in Tort Law: The Doctrine of Attributed Responsibility Vicarious liability is one of the most distinctive doctrines in tort law because it permits one person or legal entity to be held responsible for a tort committed by another. The person held liable may not have personally acted negligently, Read more

Failure to Warn and Marketing Defects A product can be safely manufactured and reasonably designed and still be legally defective because consumers were not adequately warned about a significant risk. This is the third major category of product defects, alongside manufacturing defects and design defects. A manufacturing defect occurs when Read more

Design Defects A product does not have to be manufactured incorrectly to be defective. Sometimes a manufacturer produces exactly what it intended to produce. Every unit conforms to the same specifications. The production process works perfectly. Yet the product may still be legally defective because the design itself creates an Read more

Manufacturing Defects A product can be dangerous because it was designed badly, because consumers were not adequately warned about its risks, or because a particular unit was manufactured incorrectly. That last category is a manufacturing defect. Manufacturing defects are an important part of products liability law because they illustrate a Read more

What Is Products Liability? Products liability is the area of tort law that governs legal responsibility for injuries and property damage caused by defective or unreasonably dangerous products. When a product causes harm, the law may allow an injured person to pursue a claim against a manufacturer, distributor, retailer, or Read more