The following outline is provided as an overview of and introduction to tort law in common law jurisdictions:
Tort law – defines what a legal injury is and, therefore, whether a person may be held liable for an injury they have caused. Legal injuries are not limited to physical injuries. They may also include emotional, economic, or reputational injuries as well as violations of privacy, property, or constitutional rights.
Types of torts
Torts against the person
Torts (trespass) against the person – category of torts that describes a civil wrong that causes physical harm to the complainant:
Assault (tort) – intentionally and voluntarily causing the reasonable apprehension of an immediate harmful or offensive contact. Battery (tort) – Bringing about an unconsentful harmful or offensive contact with a person or to something closely associated with that person (such as an item of clothing). It differs from assault in that it requires actual contact. False imprisonment – A person is intentionally confined without legal authority. Intentional infliction of emotional distress – Intentional conduct that results in extreme emotional distress.
Negligent torts
Negligence – failure to exercise the care that a reasonably prudent person would exercise in like circumstances Breach of duty – There can be no liability in negligence unless the claimant established that he or she was owed a duty of care by the defendant and that there has been a breach of that duty. Legal causation or remoteness – The idea that liability may be so remote from the defendant that the negligence was not foreseeable or preventable by that party. Negligent Infliction of Emotional Distress - The idea that one has a legal duty to use reasonable care to avoid causing emotional distress to another individual. Malpractice or professional negligence – Negligence in the provision of a professional service causing harm to the claimant. Common varieties include medical malpractice and legal malpractice Negligence per se – Conduct which by its very nature gives rise to a presumption of negligence.
Property torts
Trespass to land – Committed when an individual intentionally enters the land of another without lawful excuse. It is actionable per se, and thus the party whose land was entered may sue even if no actual harm is done. Trespass to chattels – Committed when an individual intentionally interferes with the personal property of another. Slight deprivation, like briefly placing a hand on someone else's car, is not actionable. Conversion (law) – An intentional tort to personal property where the defendant's willful interference with the chattel deprives plaintiff of the possession of the same. Nuisance – Denial of quiet enjoyment to owners of real property. A private nuisance is an unreasonable, unwarranted, or unlawful interference with another person's private use and enjoyment of his or her property; whereas a public nuisance is an interference with the rights of the public generally. The test to determine whether an interference is reasonable is whether the gravity of the harm is outweighed by the social benefit of the nuisance.