Recently, we published a comprehensive article about the types of civil liability and case examples from the state of Texas. Here’s a quick rundown to give you the basics.
Civil liability and personal injury often go hand in hand. Civil liability means that you have committed a tort (wrongful act) and are facing the consequences that follow.
That being said, there are 3 basic types of civil liability that individuals may face for committing torts.
1. Intentional torts
Intentional torts are wrongful acts that are committed because an individual intends to purposely cause harm to another.
These types of acts include battery, assault, or even defamation (spreading false information). For example, a Texas couple was called “sexual deviants, molesters, and drug dealers” on a popular forum site by anonymous commenters. There was no evidence to support these claims, and the couple was awarded $13.78 million for their scarred reputation.
2. Negligence torts
Negligence torts are the most common type. This type of civil liability is not committed intentionally, but occurs when a person has a certain responsibility and fails to uphold that responsibility. This, in turn, causes damage to another.
The two types of negligence torts include criminal and civil. Criminal occurs when someone breaks the law negligently whereas civil deals with negligently handling responsibilities. For example, a Texas man suffered a brain injury from an unsafe work environment. He won his case, and the judge ruled that he should have been provided supervision and safety equipment.
Strict liability torts
Strict liability doesn’t look into another party’s negligence at all. Instead, in this case, if someone’s actions caused damage, they will be considered liable. This is even true if the incident was out of the defendant’s control.
The most common types of strict liability cases are dangerous animal cases, dangerous acts (like target shooting), and product liability.
For example, if a product causes injury because of a defective design or flaw, the manufacturers will be held strictly liable even though they had no direct hand in the accident.