tort law vocab Flashcards
Common law
A body of law that derived from judicial decisions rather than from statutes or constitution. (Often referred to as judge made law)
Constitutional law
Sets forth the fundamental law for nation or state
Tort
Harm to a person or a person’s property
Tort law
Law that deals with harm to a person or a person’s property
Arson
The malicious burning of the house or property of another
Assault
An intentional act that creates fear for any immediate harmful or offensive physical contact (putting someone in fear)
Battery
An intentional act that creates a harmful or offensive physical contact. Can form the basis for either a tort or a criminal action.
Bill
A proposed law as presented to a legislator
Board of directors
A group responsible for the management of a corporation
Capital crime
A crime for which the death sentence can be imposed
Citation
A stylized form for giving the reader information about a legal authority, generally including the name of the authority, it’s a date, and specifics such as volume and page numbers to help the reader located it.
Civil law
Law that deals with harm to an individual
Clear and present danger test
A test used by judges in which the courts will limit the rights of free expression when the challenged action creates a “clear and present danger” that they will bring about some substantive evils that government has the right to prevent
Complete defense
A defense that if proven relieves the defendant of all criminal responsibility
Contract
An agreement supported by consideration
Count
In a complaint, one cause of action
Criminal law
Law that deals with harm to society as a whole
Criminal procedure
The way in which criminal prosecutions are handled; governed by the federal or state rules of criminal procedure
Defamation
The publication of false statements that harm a person’s reputation
District Attorney
An attorney appointed to prosecute crimes
Felony
A serious crime usually carrying a prison sentence of one or more years
Tortfeasor
The person who commits the tort
Intentional tort
When people intentionally seek to violate a duty toward others.
Negligence
When the harm occurs as a result of a careless act done with no conscious intent to injure anyone
Strict liability
A defendant is held responsible even though the defendant did not act negligently nor intentionally on the plaintiff (Liability without having to prove fault)
False imprisonment
Occurs whenever one person, tothrough force or the threat of force, unlawfully detained another person against his or her will
Transferred intent
A legal fiction that of a person directs a tortious action toward A but instead harms B, The intent to act against A is transferred to B
Slander
Spoken the defamation
Libel
Written defamation
Defamation per se
Remarks considered to be so harmful that they are automatically viewed defamation
Malice
Making a defamatory remark either knowing the material was false or acting with a “reckless disregard” for whether or not it was true
Invasion of privacy
An intentional tort that covers a variety of situations including: Disclosure Intrusion Appropriation False light
Disclosure
The intentional publication of embarrassing private affairs
Intrusion
The intentional unjustified encroachment into another person’s private activities