Law of Tort

Contents

Introduction2

Discussion3

Tort of Negligence3

Duty of care5

Standard of Care7

Case analysis7

Conclusion10

Law of Tort

Introduction

The 'Tort law' or the 'law of Tort' is an important component of the English Common system of law. 'Tortus' is a Latin word which means 'wrong' or 'twisted' (Harpwood, 2008, pp 1). The tort law is defined as 'a civil wrong in the sense that it is committed an individual (which includes legal entities such as companies) rather than the state' (Cooke, 2007, pp. 3). This means that the state is not part of the tort cases, rather individuals or companies are the parties involved. Tort is considered as a civil wrong in which the 'tortfeasor' or someone who commits tort compensates the injured party for the losses.

The law of tort is different from the criminal law in three principles. First, state becomes a party in criminal law cases. Second, tort law cases specifically provide the chance to sue tort-feaser only by the individual affected. Third, the decisions of criminal law aim at providing security to everyone in the society, not to a particular affected group (Milstein, 2009, pp 12). Tort law is also different from the contract law because in case of tort, a fixed law has been breached.

The history of tort law goes back to old times when even the concept of crime was not clear. Roman civilization introduced this concept in a preliminary form. Since there was no proper prosecuting authority to penalize crimes, the common practice nourished during that time was to compel the offender to compensate the affected individual (Lunney & Oliphant, 2008, pp 1). This concept has been modified and revised according to the need in the society in last fifteen hundred years. However, it shows that this particular way of justice has been part of the societal norms since ages.

The law of tort has been divided mainly into three categories which are intentional torts, negligence torts and strict liability torts (Maller et al, 2001, pp 78). The most common and relevant category of tort in this case is the tort of negligence.

Discussion

Tort of Negligence

The tort of negligence is defined as 'A breach of duty or a failure of one party to exercise the standard of care required by law, resulting in damage to the party to whom the duty was owed' (University of Colorado, 1997, pp. nd). It is the most prominent category of tort which is used in various cases. To define it simply, it is an ex post assessment of a careless behaviour. The court analyzes the act of the defendant from an eye of a reasonable man and decides whether or not negligence tort applies in the case. Therefore, the perspective of court is also very important because if courts prefer to give decisions based on satisfying the affected parties then too many people will be declared guilty, even though they would have tried their best to avoid harming the affected party. Similarly, if courts tend to give decisions considering the fact that it is impossible ...