Elements of negligent tort liability and remedies

Torts

The definition of a tort is a common breach committed toward a second party. In this injury toward another, one of the parties can sue the other for damages. Oftentimes when this involves personal injury. One party that has suffered injury, will file for compensation by bringing a claim against another to compensate for damages experienced. The application of the law in a tort case will decide if the party filed against is liable for the injury according to the law. The tort law will also determine what the required compensation is to amount to for the injured party. Essentially the four components applicable to tort law include causation, duty, injury and a breach of (expected) duty (Standler, 1999). The determining factor warranting damages is a breach of duty toward a plaintiff from the defendant that has caused injury. There are many different types of torts, however the three most often brought before tort law are strict liability, negligence, and intentional tort cases (Standler, 1999).

Causation is the actual failure to perform a necessary act that resulted in an injury to the plaintiff in a tort law case. The cause may be direct or indirect as in the case of several events or acts that resulted in an injury. This is also referred to as proximate cause (Farlex, 2011).

Duty is described as the reasonable requirement necessary to properly carry out or perform an act of service or care toward another party. The first step in determining negligence is to accurately establish the existence of duty.

An injury must be present in order in a valid tort case. An injury can be physical, financial, social or mental for which a plaintiff suffers or experiences loss. Some examples are loss of limb, or use of a limb, mental distress, even public humiliation (consider tabloid, or media stories, for example).

Breach occurs when the defendant has failed to commit the expected or preventive act toward a plaintiff that would avoid injury.

Proximate cause occurs when an event results in a failure to ensure safety toward a victim by performing the required act to avoid injury. The event causes an injury to a party thereby the trigger of proximate cause. This could be an intentional or unintentional injury. The event must be the cause of the injury. The existence of a proximate cause must be proven by the plaintiff as the primary reason the injury happened. If it can be proven that another cause was the primary act resulting in the injury this is called an intervening cause (Farlex, 2011). This may diminish the amount of damages the defendant is required to remit. In some cases the intervening cause can remove total liability for the injury from the defendant (Standler, 1999).

Strict liability

Strict liability is present when there is an injury to a plaintiff period. In this case negligence is not a required factor (Standler, 1999). The only requirement for strict liability is that an injury occurred to the plaintiff. An example of this would be a car accident where the driver does not have insurance. Even though this driver was not the cause of the accident, they are at fault simply by failing to uphold the law requiring valid insurance coverage. Another example would be a wet surface within a retail store. In many cases, regardless if the spill was the result of the plaintiff's carelessness or not, the retailer is liable. Another common occurrence may be food poisoning from a local restaurant. These type situations are considered dangerous by default and can be avoided when the defendants takes the correct precaution.

Negligent Tort

Negligence is considered the mistake of failing to utilize reasonable care that is expected of a practical person in similar conditions. This type of tort law results in causing injury to another simply by acting in a careless manner (Standler, 1999).

With this type of tort in a civil case, the person that is harmed has to prove that the defendant was negligent in failing to act in a reasonable manner resulting in an injury. Damages or compensation can be filed against the defendant for many different types of injury. Included are injuries such as harm to the physical body, the property owned by the plaintiff, or even the reputation as mentioned before. Oftentimes these type of torts are filed by celebrities, political leaders, and other personalities that are in the public eye. However there are many civil cases brought against corporations and businesses such as BP Oil. Another example of negligence is failure to maintain property such as the case of slippery sidewalks of homeowners.