Tort law falls into two categories: Negligence or intentional tort. Negligence means something that happened by accident because of the carelessness of one party. While their actions may be careless and quite likely to result in harm to someone else, they did not intend to cause harm. Intentional tort, on the other hand, is an intentional action, even if it was not meant to cause harm. For example, if someone played a prank or tried to scare someone and caused them to have a heart attack or car accident, their actions are intentional, even if they meant it as a joke. The plaintiff would file an intentional tort rather than a negligence claim.
Intentional torts also cover intentional harm, like abuse, domestic abuse, battery, and defamation. These are where someone meant to cause harm and did.
Elements of an Intentional Tort
In order to file an intentional tort, your attorney will often ensure the following elements are met. Most lawyers will not take on an intentional tort case (or any other type of civil lawsuit) if they believe it does not have legal standing.
There are a number of types of intentional tort, that will have additional legal elements to prove. However, all intentional torts must have the following elements:
- The defendant acted intentionally when they carried out the action
- The defendant had reasonable knowledge that there may be consequences to their actions
The plaintiff only needs to prove that the action the defendant took was intentional and that the defendant knew there might be negative consequences. They did not need to know that the injury or damage that occurred would be one of the consequences, just that there may be negative consequences.
For example, Person A states that they do not eat nuts, and Person B makes a sandwich, purposefully using nuts in a dressing because they think Person A is being picky. Person A is allergic to nuts and has an anaphylactic reaction, resulting in an ambulance being called and admittance to the hospital. Person A would file an intentional tort against Person B to recover the cost of the ambulance and medical bills, as well as lost wages if they had to take a day off work. If Person A used one of their epi-pens, they might also include the cost in the damages. Person B sent a message to their friend Person C stating that they were just trying to prove that Person A wouldn’t notice the taste of the nuts and didn’t realize that Person A was allergic. Using that evidence, Person A can show in their intentional tort that there was intent. Person A may also use the reasonable person standard to show that most people would know there could be negative consequences to giving Person A nuts, even if it was just an upset stomach.
In this way, an intentional tort is different from civil lawsuits involving negligence, because the action is intentional. To use the same example, negligence would be if Person B used a knife for peanut butter and then used it for Person A’s sandwich. If it was in their own home, then Person B may be required to have knowledge of Person A’s allergy; otherwise, it would be an unreasonable expectation to prevent cross-contamination.
Intentional Tort Examples
There are seven types of intentional tort:
- Battery
- Assault
- Conversion
- Trespass to Land
- Trespass to Chattels
- False Imprisonment
- Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress
All of these types of intentional tort are serious, and whether you are the plaintiff or the defendant, you could benefit from legal advice. As a plaintiff, you can easily invalidate your claim by failing to prove one of the necessary legal elements. You may also unwittingly reduce the amount of compensation you may claim by not calculating the scope of your damages. An attorney can help you to calculate your current damages as well as ongoing or future damages. They can also discuss emotional distress, pain and suffering, and other intangible benefits and help you to calculate the impact.
As a defendant facing an intentional tort, you could be on the hook for extensive damages. Some of these intentional torts may result in a criminal case too, and evidence presented in court could be used against you. An attorney will help you to resolve the case in the most beneficial way possible and keep you advised of the implications of your decisions.