CL623 Tort Law Module 1 PDF

CL623: Torts I Module 1: What is a Tort? Video Transcript **** 1. Welcome to “What is a Tort?” 2. This presentation covers what is a tort and what is not a...

CL623: Torts I Module 1: What is a Tort? Video Transcript **** 1. Welcome to “What is a Tort?” 2. This presentation covers what is a tort and what is not a tort. 3. A Tort is a type of civil legal claim that is defined as “An act or omission that gives rise to injury or harm to another and amounts to a civil wrong for which courts impose liability.” 4. Torts are generally thought of as legal claims for personal injuries such as injuries from car accidents, medical malpractice, slipping and falling, as well as injuries from another personal that are done intentionally, and injuries from a product. 5. Torts go beyond these injuries and can address other issues as well including unfair termination, defamation, nuisance, damage to property, and emotional harm. You will learn more about all of these subjects in this class. 6. There are other types of legal claims that are not Torts. Contracts and Crimes are among these claims. You will learn more about those subjects in your other first year classes. Some tort claims have some similarities to contract claims and to crimes, but there are differences. Understanding the similarities and differences between them will help you understand the requirements of all of these different types of claims. 7. Similarities between tort claims and contract claims include that they are both civil claims and the conduct that leads to a breach of contract can also lead to tort claims like tortious interference with a contract or negligence. 8. For example, let’s say you have a contract with a person to build a deck on your house and the contract says it will be completed in a manner that complies with 1  housing codes and will be completed by a certain date. You leave town for a work trip and the agreement is that the contract will be done when you return so that you can lay out on your nice new deck and relax. Your neighbor sees the deck being built and decides he wants one and offers to pay the contractor more to stop working on your deck and complete his deck first. The contractor does that and leaves your deck partially built without telling you it is not complete. You come home, go out on the deck, and fall through when some boards move that were not nailed down. 9. The neighbor’s actions could lead to tortious interference with contract. The contractor’s actions could be breach of contract for not completing the deck on time and in a way that meets code requirements, and negligence for leaving the deck in a manner that could injure you. 10. However, there are important differences between contract and tort claims. Contracts involve agreements. Torts involve legal wrongs independent of a contract that are based on relationships and obligations towards others. In our example, the breach of contract comes from the contractor not finishing the deck on time in a way that meets code requirements as stated in the contract. The negligence claim would arise from the contractor’s failure to use due care in building the deck and in leaving it partially built in a way that could harm you. That claim exists regardless of the contract in our example. 11. Similarities between torts and crimes are that actions that are crimes may also be torts. For example, let’s say someone takes your purse from you, hits you over the head with it, and runs away. Hitting you on the head with the purse could be assault and it could be battery. Assault and battery can be both torts and they can be crimes. 12. But there are important differences between the tort of assault and the tort of battery and the crime of assault and the crime of battery. The differences stem from the differences between civil claims and crimes. 13. This table illustrates some of the important differences between civil claims and crimes. 2  One is the differences is the parties involved. With a tort, it involves private parties. In our example with the purse, you would sue the person that hit you over the head in court. With crimes, the government charges the defendant and files a criminal complaint. You would notify the police that it occurred and a prosecutor would be in charge of the criminal complaint. A second difference is the burden of proof. With civil claims, the standard is generally a preponderance of the evidence which is generally thought of meaning that the evidence shows that it is more probable than not that what the plaintiff is claiming occurred. In a criminal case, the standard is higher. It is beyond a reasonable doubt which means there is no plausible or real doubt that the defendant committed the crime. A third difference is remedies. In civil tort cases, the remedy is generally money to compensate for the injuries caused by the tort. Relief can also be equitable relief where a court orders a party to do something or to stop doing something. In criminal cases, relief is generally punitive or rehabilitative with the defendant being punished by being sent to jail or rehabilitated by being sent to some program to try to address the defendant’s behavior that led to the crime. 14. In this presentation we discussed what a tort is and what a tort is not which included a discussion of some of the similarities between torts, contracts, and crimes. Please email your professor with any questions. 3