This section will cover the vocabulary of civil wrongs, fault, damages, and defenses.
Planned cornerstone topics include tort, negligence, duty of care, causation, damages, strict liability, defamation, nuisance, trespass, and comparative negligence.
For now, start with Liability, Remedy, Cause of Action, and Complaint to understand how a civil claim is framed before the tort-specific pages arrive.
In this section
- Causation
Causation asks whether a defendant's conduct legally caused the harm that the plaintiff claims.
- Comparative Negligence
Comparative negligence reduces a plaintiff's recovery when the plaintiff's own negligence contributed to the harm.
- Damages
Damages are money awarded to compensate for harm or loss caused by a legal wrong.
- Defamation
Defamation is a false statement that harms a person's reputation and can give rise to a civil claim.
- Duty of Care
Duty of care is the legal obligation to act with reasonable care toward others in a given situation.
- Negligence
Negligence is the failure to use reasonable care, causing legally recognized harm to another person.
- Nuisance
Nuisance is a substantial and unreasonable interference with the use or enjoyment of land.
- Strict Liability
Strict liability is liability imposed without requiring proof that the defendant acted negligently or intentionally.
- Tort
A tort is a civil wrong that can give an injured party a claim for damages or another remedy.
- Trespass
Trespass is an unauthorized entry onto another person's land or interference with possessory rights.