Every case handled by a personal injury lawyer in Milton involves performance of some type of tort. Tort is an action that harms one party when it has been performed by a second party. The intent to commit intentional tort represents a disregard for the rules that seek to prevent commission of an action that can become a victim’s grounds for filing a special type of personal injury claim.
Basic characteristics of intentional tort
• The defendant’s act was done on purpose. It was not a mistake or an accident.
• The defendant was more than careless; he or she breached a duty that should be assumed by every adult.
• The defendant deserves to be stamped with the status of tort feasor. The defendant made the tort feasible.
• The victim of intentional tort has been harmed in some way.
The varied types of intentional tort
Fraud: Issuing fraudulent claims about the plaintiff, even knowing that such claims will unjustly hurt the plaintiff’s reputation. This is a form of libel.
Slander: This is a different form of libel. Here the defendant defames the plaintiff in a written document. The size of the fine placed on the slanderer determines the degree to which he or she gets punished.
Misrepresentation: The use of someone else’s ID serves as an example of misrepresentation. The introduction of the Internet has increased the frequency with which this harmful act gets committed. Of course, there were people making copies of credit cards, licenses and other documents even before large numbers of the public had gained access to the Internet.
Assault: The act of laying a hand on someone else. Even the act of threatening an assault is illegal, unless it has been done to protect the safety of the person making the threat. Still, lawyers are quite aware of the thin line between a threat and a defensive move.
Battery: Assault and battery normally go together. When an assault serves to harm someone else, it becomes battery. Again, the act of defending oneself against an act of battery does not always rise to the level of intentional tort. On the other hand, it can encourage performance of a far more harmful act. (Look below the short statement on false imprisonment.)
False imprisonment: Holding another person against his or he will; depriving that person of the ability to leave his or her “prison.”
Murder: This is what happens when commission of tort gets taken to the extreme. The existence of intent to do harm increases the serious nature of the crime. A person gets punished for that intention, even if it existed for just a brief period of time, before the commission of the murderous act.