Litigation Lawyers in West Pittston

A "tort" in West Pittston, Pennsylvania is essentially any legally-recognized harm for which the victim is legally entitled to pursue compensation from the perpetrator.

Typically, any bad act in West Pittston, Pennsylvania that gives you the legal right to sue the person who committed the act, is a tort. Your particular right to sue is called a "cause of action."

Statutes and appellate court rulings in West Pittston, Pennsylvania recognize a very considerable number of different torts. However, most of these torts are largely relics of history, and are no longer litigated very frequently, if at all. There are only a few that the average person has a decent chance of dealing with at least once in their lives. They include, but aren't limited to, negligence, fraud, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and battery.

Types of Torts in West Pittston, Pennsylvania

Negligence: Negligence is by far the most prevalent tort that results in litigation in West Pittston, Pennsylvania. Negligence is a failure to exercise the amount of care appropriate for a certain situation, and causing harm to someone else as a result of this carelessness. For instance, running a red light is inherently careless. If you run a red light, and cause personal injury or property damage, you are liable for the harm you caused. Of course, this is just one instance, and negligence can occur in basically any context.

Fraud: Unlike negligence, fraud is an intentional tort. Like negligence, courts in West Pittston, Pennsylvania deal with it quite often. Put simply, fraud is a lie told for personal gain. It requires an affirmative misrepresentation, which the speaker knows to be false, intended to induce the victim to render some benefit to the speaker, which causes actual harm (such as financial loss) to the victim. It occurs most frequently when somebody is trying to sell something for more than it's worth, and lies about the nature or value of the product to the buyer. If the buyer relies on the seller's false statements of fact in making the decision to buy the product, the seller has committed fraud. In such a situation, the buyer is legally entitled to compensation for the harm suffered as a result of the fraud.

Battery: Battery is defined by the law of West Pittston, Pennsylvania as any contact by one person, with the body of another, which is offensive or harmful. Any conduct that causes physical injury, pain, or emotional distress is battery. Also, you do not need to directly touch a person with your own body to commit battery - simply directing harmful contact (say, by throwing a rock) toward another person is sufficient to create liability for battery. Battery can also arise from "offensive" contact, which is typically any physical contact that violates one's sense of personal dignity constitutes battery, and the victim could technically sue over it. Nonetheless, in most cases like that, the plaintiff hasn't sustained any real harm, and will only be able to recover nominal damages, which would be far, far less than the cost of filing a lawsuit.

Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress: Intentional infliction of emotional distress, or IIED, is a relatively new tort in West Pittston, Pennsylvania. It is committed when someone deliberately causes emotional distress or trauma to another person by engaging in outrageous conduct, with the intent of causing such distress. Note that the defendant does not need to cause physical injuries to the plaintiff to be liable for IIED, but the plaintiff does have to produce evidence that they sustained emotional distress. This evidence typically comes in the form of a report from a psychiatrist who evaluated the plaintiff's mental condition.

How Can A West Pittston, Pennsylvania Tort Lawyer Help?

If you believe that you've been the victim of a tort in West Pittston, Pennsylvania, you have a right to go to court and try to prove your case. On the other hand, if you find that you are being sued for a tort, and believe that you aren't responsible, you have every right to defend yourself in court.

In either of those situations, you will almost definitely benefit from the counsel of a competent tort lawyer in West Pittston, Pennsylvania. In addition to improving your chances of winning your case, should it go to trial, a reliable lawyer will also make every effort to prevent the issue from going to trial in the first place, by attempting to negotiate a settlement with the other side that's acceptable to both parties.