Structured Settlements:

Tort

In the common law, a tort is a civil wrong, other than a breach of contract, for which the law provides a remedy. The origins of the modern law of torts lie in the old remedies of trespass and trespass on the case. The term itself comes from Law French and means, literally, "a wrong". In the French language, the phrase avoir tort translates to "to be wrong". The equivalent body of law in civil law legal systems is delict.

A tort is a breach of a non-contractual duty potentially owed to the entire world, imposed by law. The majority of legal claims are brought in tort.

Tort law is distinguished from the law of contract, the law of restitution, the law of equity and the criminal law. Contract law protects expectations arising from promises, restitution prevents unjust enrichment, equity seeks to ensure that people act properly in certain circumstances and criminal law punishes wrongs that are so severe such as murder, that the state has a direct interest in preventing them. Note that many wrongs can result in liability to both the state as crimes, and to the victim as torts.

Tort law serves to protect a person's interest in his or her bodily security, tangible property, financial resources, or reputation. Interference with one of these interests is redressable by an action for compensation, usually in the form of unliquidated damages. The law of torts therefore aims to restore the injured person to the position he or she was in before the tort was committed (the expectation or rightful position principle).

In most countries, torts are typically divided into three broad categories — intentional torts, negligence and nuisance. Additional categories or subcategories are recognized in some countries. Some torts are strict liability torts, in that the plaintiff may recover by showing only that the wrong took place, and that the defendant committed the wrong — there is no need to show the defendant's state of mind or that the defendant breached a duty of due care.

Purposes of torts

The law of torts determines whether a loss that befalls one person should or should not be shifted to another person. Some of the consequences of injury or death, such as medical expenses incurred, can be made good by payment of damages. Damages may also be paid, for want of a better means of compensation, for non-pecuniary consequences, such as pain.

In "The Aims of the Law of Tort" (1951) Glanville Williams saw four possible bases on which different torts rested: appeasement, justice, deterrence and compensation. The law tends to emphasize different aims in relation to intentional torts from those in relation to negligence or strict liability. After Williams' article, there grew a school of economic analysts of law who emphasized incentives and deterrence.

Torts are generally categorized by two factors:

The level of intent that must be assessed against the tortfeasor, and
The interest affected by the tort.

Intentional torts
Intentional torts are any intentional acts that are reasonably foreseeable to cause harm to an individual, and that do so. Intentional torts have several subcategories, including torts against the person, property torts, dignitary torts, and economic torts.

Torts against the person
Torts against the person harm or restrict the person of the plaintiff. Torts against the person include assault, battery, false imprisonment, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Property torts
Property torts involve any intentional interference with the property rights of the plaintiff. Those commonly recognized include trespass to land, trespass to chattels, and conversion.

Dignitary torts
Dignitary torts are torts that cause no tangible injury to a person or his property, but rather cause intangible harm to his reputation. These may include defamation, slander, libel, misappropriation of publicity, invasion of privacy, and disclosure. In the United States, the First Amendment places special limitations on the defamation of public figures with respect to issues of public importance. Abuse of process and malicious prosecution are often classified as dignitary torts as well.

Economic torts
Economic torts include common law fraud and tortious interference with contractual or business relationships.

See:
• Annuity
• best fixed annuities
• fixed indexed annuities
• Life Annuity
• credit shelter trusts
• Structured settlement companies
• Structured Settlement Calculator
• Florida structured settlements
• Texas Structured Settlement
• Cash for Structured Settlements

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Tort".