Tort law

Factual Causation in Tort Law A defendant may have acted negligently. A defendant may have breached a duty of care. The plaintiff may even have suffered a serious injury. But none of those facts, by themselves, necessarily establish liability. There must also be a connection between the defendant’s wrongful conduct Read more

Standard of Care in Tort Law In a negligence case, it is not enough to establish that the defendant owed the plaintiff a duty of care. The law must also determine what that duty required the defendant to do. That is the function of the standard of care. The standard Read more

The Reasonable Person Standard in Tort Law How does a court decide whether someone acted negligently? One of the central tools of Tort Law is the reasonable person standard. When a negligence claim is brought, the law generally does not ask simply whether the defendant personally believed that they acted Read more

Breach of Duty: When Does Conduct Become Negligence? Once a court determines that a defendant owed a plaintiff a duty of care, the next question in a negligence case is straightforward: Did the defendant breach that duty? This is the second major element of negligence. The basic structure is: Duty Read more

Duty of Care: Understanding the First Element of Negligence Before a person can ordinarily be held liable for negligence, there is a fundamental question that must be answered: Did the defendant owe the plaintiff a duty of care? This question comes before breach, causation, and damages. A person may behave Read more

What Is Negligence? A Complete Guide to Negligence in Tort Law Negligence is one of the most important concepts in Tort Law. It is also one of the most common reasons why people become involved in civil litigation. Car accidents, medical malpractice, defective property conditions, workplace accidents, professional mistakes, and Read more

Tort Law vs. Contract Law: Understanding the Difference Between Civil Wrongs and Agreements Tort law and contract law are both branches of civil law, and both can result in one party being required to pay money to another. That superficial similarity can make them easy to confuse. But they are Read more

Tort Law vs. Criminal Law: Understanding the Difference Between Civil Wrongs and Crimes Tort law and criminal law are two distinct branches of law, but they often meet in the same real-world events. A person who intentionally strikes another person, for example, may face a criminal prosecution for an offense Read more

Elements of a Tort: Understanding How Tort Claims Are Established Tort law is not simply the law of injuries. A person may be injured, lose money, suffer emotional distress, or have property damaged without automatically having a successful tort claim. To establish liability, a plaintiff generally must show that the Read more