Tort comes from the Latin word tortum, meaning “wrong.” A tort, in common law jurisdictions, is a civil wrong.
English tort law concerns the compensation for harm to people’s rights to health and safety, a clean environment, property, their economic interests, or their reputations.
Negligence, trespass, nuisance and wrongful or tortious interference with contracts all fall within tort law.
The Court is usually limited in to what it can do, so compensation for a tort is by payment of money.
Of all the various Torts, Negligence is the most frequently come across. It is when harm is caused to a person by another not acting carefully.
The main elements of negligence are:
- A duty of care
- Breach of that duty
- Breach causing harm in fact
- The harm must be not too remote a consequence of the breach
Even within these general principles there are differences between Personal Injury Claims (which we do not practice), Clinical Negligence (which we do not practice) and Professional Negligence Claims.