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.
Negligence Law
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.
To prove negligence, an injured individual must show that another party had a duty of reasonable care, breached that duty, and that breach of duty led to the injuries of the first 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 another’s 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 Acts
Any individual who acts with the intention to injure another or their personal property, has committed an intentional tort. 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.An intentional act, or tor, is defined in many states as an act where a reasonable person knew, or should have had knowledge that it would lead to an injury or destruction of 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.
Harry S. Bernstein has been representing claimants as a an experienced Cleveland Personal Injury attorney for several years. Please visit our website at Cleveland Personal Injury attorney from more information on this topic.
