When another party causes an accident or other incident that injures someone, that person can be held financially liable for damages. A tort is an act or omission that causes someone harm or injury. It gives victims a cause of action to seek compensation for the harm they have sustained. Depending on the circumstances, torts can result in personal injury claims or even wrongful death claims.
Three Types of Tort Cases in Georgia
There are three general categories of torts:
Negligence Tort Law
Most personal injury cases are negligence-based torts. A party is negligent when they fail to use reasonable care.
What is considered “reasonable” is based on the facts of the case and what a reasonably prudent person would have done under the same circumstances. Jurors decide what is reasonable to determine if the party was negligent.
Examples of personal injury cases that often involve negligence include:
In a negligence tort case, the victim must prove four legal elements to establish negligence and liability. Those elements are:
- Duty – The party owed the victim an obligation to avoid causing them injury.
- Breach of Duty – The party’s actions did not meet the standard duty of care.
- Causation – The breach of duty was the proximate and direct cause of the harmful event or accident.
- Damages – The harmful event or accident caused the victim to suffer injuries and other losses or harm.
For a party to be negligent, they must have been able to reasonably foresee that their actions could cause someone to be harmed. For example, it is reasonable to presume that driving 80 mph through a neighborhood could foreseeably result in an accident.
Intentional Tort Cases
Intentional tort cases involve deliberate, intentional actions to harm another person. The harm may be physical, emotional, or result in property damage.
In many cases, intentional torts involve criminal acts, such as assault, defamation, battery, or false imprisonment. Even though a person is arrested, the victim may still pursue a personal injury claim in civil court. The cases are separate, meaning the personal injury case is not dependent on the criminal case’s outcome.
Strict Liability Torts
Some parties are held strictly liable for damages if they engage in certain activities. The victim does not need to prove negligence to recover damages.
An example of strict liability torts is product liability claims. A manufacturer can be held strictly liable for injuries caused by a defective product even if they did not intend to make a dangerous or defective product.
Abnormally dangerous activities can also result in strict liability. These activities have a high risk of causing harm or injury to someone, even when the party uses reasonable care. The risk to others must be reasonably foreseeable.
Strict liability may also apply in cases involving injuries by wild animals. Keeping wild animals has a high risk of danger to others.
Damages Available in Tort Cases in Savannah, GA
In all tort cases, the victim has the burden of proving the legal elements to establish liability. If they are successful, Georgia personal injury laws award victims compensatory damages for tort claims.
Economic and non-economic damages in a tort case include:
- Pain and suffering
- Medical bills and expenses
- Impairments and disabilities
- Physical therapy and rehabilitation
- Scarring and disfigurement
- Lost wages and benefits
- Emotional distress and mental anguish
- Reduced earning capacity
- Diminished quality of life
- Out-of-pocket damages
- Loss of enjoyment of life
In some tort lawsuits, jurors award punitive damages against the defendant. Punitive damages punish the defendant for their conduct and deter them and others from repeating the conduct.
Visit Our Personal Injury Law Offices in Savannah, GA
Bowen Painter Injury Lawyers
308 Commercial Drive, Suite 100, Savannah, GA 31406
(912) 493-7941
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