In a standard personal injury claim, you are dealing with a negligence case, a case where someone accidentally but carelessly inflicted injuries. As you could probably guess, an intentional tort is when someone purposefully inflicts injury. These often represent the civil claim side of a criminal case.
For instance, an assault and battery offense is a form of intentional tort. If someone were to threaten or attack you, a prosecutor could a criminal charge against the offender, while you could file an injury lawsuit.
The various types of intentional torts include:
- Assault and battery
- Defamation
- False imprisonment / false arrest
- Fraud
- Trespassing
Defamation is when someone harms another person through a false report, holding out something false as a fact instead of just an opinion. Even if someone did not know the statement was false, but should have known by verifying first, they could still be held liable.False imprisonment is the forceful restraining of someone, or threatening force to detain someone. An unlawful arrest can be conducted more than police officers; for instance, private security guards and store owners could also commit this. Fraud covers a lot of different crimes, any number of scams or misrepresentations.
Some of the possible defenses against an intentional tort lawsuit could often include self-defense, or that the plaintiff consented. For instance, in an assault and battery case, the defendant might say they were not the actual aggressors, or they might say that the alleged offensive contact was not actually against the plaintiff’s will.
Other harmful actions could fall under the category of an intentional tort. Find out if you have a case when call the Whitley Law Firm today to speak to a Raleigh personal injury lawyer. Our legal team has decades of experience with which to come alongside you.
