Negligence and Intentional Tort Law

In general, personal injury law can be separated in to two categories: negligent acts or intentional acts.  They may also be referred to as "torts" an old english term meaning "legal cause of action" for which an individual can seek compensation for through the legal system.

Negligent Acts

A negligent act occurs when one individual damages the person or property of another without any "intent" to injure.  This may occur due to the carelessness of the first individual.  For example, a driver who is careless, and causes an auto accident by failing to obey the traffic laws may be considered negligent and would be responsible for any damages caused to any person or property.

In order to prevail in a negligence action, the injured party needs to prove that the other party had a duty of reasonable care, did not maintain reasonable care, and that the failure to maintain such reasonable care resulted in injuries to the aggrieved party.  For example, referring to the auto accident mentioned above, all drivers have the duty to operate their vehicle safely.  If they fail to do so, and this failure injures any other person, or THEIR property, then they would meet all of the criteria to be held negligent and therefore accountable for and damages caused to the injured party.

The majority of negligent actions include slip and fall situations, motor vehicle accidents, products liability cases, and injuries resulting from the malpractice of a medical professional or institution.

Intentional Actions or Torts

An intentional tort occurs when an individual intentionally acts to injure another or their property.  In most cases, is does not matter whether the party intended that an injury occur, only that he or she intended to commit the act which led to the injury.  In some states an intentional tort may also be defined as an act which a reasonable person knew or should have known would have led to an injury to a person or property.

Intentional torts include such acts as, kidnapping, assault, and spousal abuse.  In fact many intentional tort actions are brought as the result of the commission of a criminal act.