What Is Tort Law?

Tort law is the body of state civil law that lets a person who's been hurt or wronged by someone else's conduct sue for money damages to make them whole again. A "tort" is simply a civil wrong — an act or failure to act that injures another person's body, property, or rights — that isn't a crime and isn't a broken contract, even though the same event can sometimes trigger more than one of those at once. If you were hurt in a car crash, slipped at a store, were bitten by a dog, or were hurt by a defective product, the legal path you'd use to recover compensation almost always runs through tort law.

Tort vs. crime vs. contract: three different questions

People often mix these up because the same bad event can raise all three at once. A drunk driver who hits a pedestrian may face a criminal charge (brought by the state, punishing the driver, possibly with jail or fines paid to the government) and a separate civil tort claim (brought by the injured person, seeking money paid to them). These are different cases, in different courts, with different burdens of proof — a criminal case must be proven "beyond a reasonable doubt," while a civil tort case only needs to be proven by a "preponderance of the evidence" (more likely than not). That's part of why a defendant can be acquitted criminally and still lose — and pay damages — in a civil tort case.

A tort is also different from a breach of contract. Contract law is about promises the parties made to each other — if a contractor doesn't finish the job you paid for, that's a contract dispute. Tort law applies even when there was no agreement between the parties at all — you never signed anything with the driver who ran the red light, but the law still recognizes a duty they owed you.

The three main categories of torts

Almost every personal injury claim falls into one of three buckets:

• Negligence — carelessness. The person didn't mean to hurt you, but they failed to act as a reasonably careful person would have. This covers the large majority of personal injury cases: car crashes, slip-and-falls, most medical malpractice, and many product defect cases.
• Intentional torts — the person meant to do the act that caused harm (though they don't necessarily have to have intended the specific injury). Examples include assault, battery, false imprisonment, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. These can overlap with crimes, but the civil case is separate from any criminal prosecution.
• Strict liability — liability without fault. In certain narrow situations, the law holds someone responsible for harm regardless of how careful they were, because the activity or product is considered inherently high-risk or because policy favors putting the cost on the party best able to absorb it. Common examples include harm caused by certain dangerous animals, some abnormally dangerous activities, and many defective-product claims.

Negligence: the four things a claim usually has to prove

Because negligence is the most common tort, it's worth understanding its basic structure. In general terms (the details are filled in by each state's own law and court decisions), a negligence claim asks the fact-finder to determine:

1. Duty — did the other person owe you a legal duty of reasonable care? (Drivers owe other drivers and pedestrians a duty to drive carefully; property owners owe visitors some duty to keep the premises reasonably safe, though the exact scope can depend on why you were there.)
2. Breach — did they fail to meet that standard of care? This is often compared to what a "reasonably prudent person" would have done in the same situation.
3. Causation — did that failure actually cause your injury, both as a direct ("but-for") cause and as a cause that wasn't too remote or unforeseeable (sometimes called "proximate cause")?
4. Damages — did you actually suffer a legally recognized harm, such as medical bills, lost income, property damage, or pain and suffering?

If any one of these elements is missing, a negligence claim generally fails — for example, a driver who ran a red light but caused no injury to anyone doesn't owe tort damages to a person who wasn't hurt, because there are no damages to compensate.

What if you were partly at fault too?

Most injury cases involve some dispute over who did what. States handle shared fault differently, generally under one of a few approaches — most common today is some form of "comparative fault," where your damages are reduced by your own percentage of fault (and some states cut off recovery entirely once your share of fault passes a threshold, such as 50% or 51%). A minority of states still use the older, harsher "contributory negligence" rule, where being even slightly at fault can bar recovery completely. Because this varies significantly by state and can dramatically change the value of a claim, don't assume how your state handles it — confirm the rule that applies in the state where the incident happened.

What remedies does tort law actually offer?

Unlike criminal law, which can impose jail time, tort law's main remedy is money damages. These typically fall into categories:

• Compensatory damages — meant to compensate for actual losses, including medical expenses, lost wages, property damage, and pain and suffering.
• Punitive damages — meant to punish especially egregious conduct (such as intentional or reckless behavior) and deter others, rather than to compensate the victim. These are the exception, not the rule, and are typically only available where the conduct was intentional, malicious, or showed reckless disregard for others' safety. The U.S. Supreme Court has held that grossly excessive punitive awards can violate due process, and has pointed courts toward considering the reprehensibility of the conduct, the ratio between punitive and compensatory damages, and comparable civil penalties (see BMW of North America v. Gore, 517 U.S. 559 (1996), and State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. v. Campbell, 538 U.S. 408 (2003)).
• Injunctive relief — in some tort cases (like ongoing nuisance or harassment), a court can also order someone to stop doing something, rather than just pay money.

What to do if you think you have a tort claim

1. Get medical care and keep records. Document injuries, treatment, and how they affect your daily life and work.
2. Preserve evidence early. Photos of the scene, contact information for witnesses, police or incident reports, and copies of any correspondence can matter a great deal later.
3. Avoid giving recorded statements or signing releases to an insurance company before you understand the value of your claim.
4. Watch your deadline. Every state has its own statute of limitations — a strict time limit for filing a tort lawsuit — and it varies not only by state but sometimes by the type of claim (for example, claims against a government agency often have much shorter, separate notice deadlines). Missing it can permanently bar your claim, so confirm the specific deadline that applies to your situation and your state as soon as possible; don't rely on a general rule of thumb.
5. Consider consulting a lawyer. Personal injury lawyers commonly work on a contingency fee, meaning they're paid a percentage of any recovery (often discussed as roughly one-third, though this varies by case and firm) rather than an upfront hourly rate, and many offer a free initial consultation. Keep in mind that even under a contingency fee, you may still be responsible for case costs and expenses, so ask how those are handled up front.
6. Understand that most cases settle before trial, often after a demand letter, negotiation, and sometimes mediation — but preparing as if the case could go to trial generally produces stronger settlement outcomes.

A note on taxes

Compensation for personal physical injuries or physical sickness is generally excluded from federal taxable income under 26 U.S.C. § 104(a)(2), though portions of a settlement allocated to things like punitive damages or lost wages in certain claim types can be treated differently. This is a general federal tax rule, not tax advice for your specific settlement.

Key takeaways

• Tort law is state civil law that lets an injured person sue for money damages; it is separate from criminal law and from contract law, even when the same event triggers more than one.
• Most personal injury claims are negligence claims, requiring proof of duty, breach, causation, and damages.
• How shared fault affects your recovery (comparative vs. contributory fault) varies by state and can significantly change a claim's value.
• Statutes of limitations vary by state and by claim type — confirm your specific deadline immediately; don't guess.
• Most injury claims settle without a trial, and injury lawyers commonly work on contingency, meaning generally no attorney fee unless you recover money (though you may still owe case costs).

This article provides general information about how tort law works and is not legal advice; consult a licensed attorney in your state about your specific situation.