The legal term “tort” refers to a wide variety of actions in which one party does wrong to another party. This wrong may have been intentional, as in a lawsuit alleging battery, or it can be unintentional, as in a car accident case.
Many business lawsuits involve intentional torts. For instance, in a lawsuit alleging fraud, the plaintiff argues that the defendant behaved in a way that was intended to deceive.
However, there are also business lawsuits that allege unintentional torts.
Negligence
Negligence is the key legal concept in cases alleging unintentional torts. A layperson might say that negligence is synonymous with “carelessness,” but the definition is more nuanced under the law.
there are four elements of a negligence claim. The first element is duty of care. This means that a duty is established when a legally recognized relationship between the defendant and plaintiff is established, requiring the defendant to act in a certain way.
The second element of a negligence claim is a breach of the duty of care that was established in the situation. This can be done by showing that the defendant failed to exercise reasonable care under the circumstances.
The next element is causation, which considers the cause-in-fact as well as the proximate cause of harm. Cause-in-fact means that the breach in the duty of care was the actual cause of the accident that harmed the plaintiff. The proximate cause of harm considers the scope of responsibility of the defendant in the specific matter.
The final element is damages. This refers to the result of actual damages suffered by the plaintiff due to the defendant’s failure to exercise reasonable care.
Product liability
These elements of negligence can apply in any case involving an allegation of defective products.
For example, imagine a case in which a man buys a new ladder, climbs the ladder and is injured. The injured man claims that the ladder was defective, and that this defect caused his injury. He files suit against the ladder manufacturer, seeking compensation for his damages.
The man must first show that the ladder manufacturer owed him a duty of care to create a reasonably safe ladder. Such a duty is established under the law, and so this element may be relatively easy to prove. Next, the man must prove that the ladder was dangerously defective in some way, thus breaching the manufacturer’s duty.
After that, the man must prove that this defect was the actual cause of his injury, and he must establish that he suffered damages as a result of his injury.
It isn’t always easy for a business to defend against a product liability lawsuit. A strong defense strategy might argue against one or all the elements of negligence in the case, arguing that the plaintiff failed to meet their burden.