tort

(noun)

A wrongful act, whether intentional or negligent, that causes an injury and can be remedied at civil law, usually through awarding damages. A delict.

Related Terms

Examples of tort in the following topics:

  • The Right to Privacy

    • It is a tort based in common law allowing an aggrieved party to bring a lawsuit against an individual who unlawfully intrudes into his or her private affairs, discloses his or her private information, publicizes him or her in a false light, or appropriates his or her name for personal gain.
    • William Prosser, in writing his own influential article on the privacy torts in American law, attributed the specific incident to an intrusion by journalists on a society wedding.
    • Finally, they propose as remedies the availability of tort actions for damages and possible injunctive relief.
    • Modern tort law includes four categories of invasion of privacy:

  • Civil Law and Criminal Law

    • Generally, crimes can result in incarceration, but torts (see below) cannot.

  • Common Law

    • Instead, it must be regarded as 50 separate systems of tort law, family law, property law, contract law, criminal law, and so on.