What Is Unintentional Tort?
You suffered a personal injury recently and think you may have a strong case on your hands. As you put affairs in order, determine what kind of personal injury case you have on your hands. That way, you know what kind of legal advocate to work with.
An unintentional tort is an accidental action that leads to property damage, bodily injury or financial fallout. One of the most essential aspects of this legal definition is that the at-fault party’s actions are inadvertent: there was no element of premeditation or forethought. There also exists an element of negligence on the at-fault person’s part; she or he did not exercise the level of care that a more reasonable person would under the same circumstances that led to your injury.
How Does Negligence Become a Tort?
A key thing to know is that a tort is a violation of a person’s right or a wrongful act deemed a legal liability. The way negligence operates as a tort is, that while the perpetrator did not mean to intentionally cause harm, that party’s unintentional actions still harmed another individual, either physically or financially. Because of the injury inflicted, the defendant has a legal obligation to pay damages.
What Are Examples of Unintentional Tort?
Examples of unintentional torts can clarify whether a personal injury case involves negligence or something more deliberate, like a criminal act. For instance, a store owner must maintain a safe environment. If a customer is injured because of an unaddressed safety hazard—such as a spill the owner saw but ignored—the owner’s inaction becomes the reason for the injury. Although she didn’t intend harm, her failure to protect visitors makes her liable.
Consider another example with a driver who knows the front passenger seatbelt is faulty. When he gives a friend a ride and an accident occurs, the friend is injured due to the malfunctioning seatbelt. By not fixing the seatbelt or warning the passenger to sit in the back, the driver’s oversight led to his friend’s injury. In both cases, negligence resulted in avoidable harm.
What Are the Elements of a Negligence Case?
While building your injury case, make sure you have the five elements of negligence: damages, duty, breach of duty, proximate cause, and cause. Juries look for these elements when deciding on a negligence case verdict, so check that they exist to begin with.
As the plaintiff, you must demonstrate that you suffered a physical injury or another type of legally recognized harm. Even if the at-fault party committed a negligent act, that disregard must have resulted in actual damages to an individual to whom the at-fault person owed a duty of care.
With the duty of care element of an unintentional tort case, “duty” is a legally recognized relationship between the at-fault party and the harmed individual. The relationship has a standard of care that the defendant owes the plaintiff, a standard of care that a reasonable person would assume exists between the two parties. The above examples establish a duty of care, but an instance wherein one person does not owe an injured party of duty of care is during a criminal act. A thief or trespasser who sustains an injury while committing a crime or trespassing cannot claim that the unknowing property owner owed a duty of care.
Beyond the duty of care, a successful unintentional tort case must show a breach of that duty. This happens when someone fails to take reasonable action to fulfill their responsibility. In the case of the store owner, the breach occurred when she ignored the spill without warning customers or cleaning it up. For the driver, the breach happened when he didn’t warn the passenger about the faulty seatbelt or suggest they sit in the back.
Proximate cause limits an at-fault party’s responsibility to damages they could have reasonably foreseen. If harm occurs outside that scope, the injured party may struggle to prove a direct link to the accused’s actions. For instance, if the injured person in the store example missed a vacation because of a long recovery, the store owner isn’t liable for the cost of the canceled trip. The store owner couldn’t have reasonably predicted that the injury would lead to lost travel expenses.
Cause is often referred to as the “but-for” causation. It means that but for the at-fault party’s negligent acts, you never would have sustained an injury. But for the business owner’s negligence in taking care of the spill, the customer would not have slipped and fell. But for the driver’s neglecting to explain the seat belt issue, the passenger would not have suffered such a degree of injury.
What Differentiates Intentional Tort Damages From Unintentional Tort Damages?
With intentional tort, there exists an element of premeditation or ill will to harm the victim. In these cases the accused can face criminal charges in addition to damages.
Legal punishment for unintentional tort includes non-compensatory and compensatory damages. Examples of non-compensatory damages include emotional devastation and pain and suffering. Compensatory damages compensate victims for lost wages and current and future medical expenses.
Work With an Experienced Local Lawyer
Do you think negligence played a substantial part in your injury? Work with a legal professional to learn what evidence you must gather and if your case includes the elements of a negligence case.
Submit a request online or call us today at (866) 345-6784 to get in touch with an experienced lawyer in your area!
About the Author
Aaron is a professional legal writer with a B.S. in English Education from Southern Illinois University – Carbondale. He has written, published, and edited thousands of legal articles for RequestLegalHelp, which has connected over 5 million people to legal help in the United States.
With over five years of experience writing thousands of legal articles for law firms across the U.S. and Canada, Aaron specializes in covering federal, state, and city-level legal issues ranging from auto accidents to wrongful terminations. Contact Aaron at [email protected] for article suggestions, collaborations, or inquiries.
