Torts & Personal Injury Law

Welcome to our personal injury law and personal injury information page. Our California personal injury attorneys stand ready to assist you through the complex maze of legal issues that arise in personal injury claims lawsuits. A personal injury lawyer from our law firm is on call 24/7 to help you if you have been involved in any injury accident in California.

California Torts and Personal Injury

As California personal injury lawyers, we limit our practice to the representation of injured and disabled persons, and the heirs of wrongful death victims. We handle all kinds of California injury accident and disability cases, including all types of California personal injury claims, workers compensation settlements, industrial and workplace injury accidents. We also handle California Social Security disability claims for our permanently totally disabled clients.

What is a Tort?

Torts are civil wrongs recognized by law as grounds for a lawsuit.  These wrongs result in an injury or harm constituting the basis for a claim by the injured party.  While some torts are also crimes punishable with imprisonment, the primary aim of tort law is to provide relief for the damages incurred and deter others from committing the same harms.  The injured person may sue for an injunction to prevent the continuation of the tortious conduct or for monetary damages.

Among the types of damages the injured party may recover are: loss of earnings capacity, pain and suffering, and reasonable medical expenses.  They include both present and future expected losses.

What are the Main Types of Torts?

There are numerous specific torts including trespass, assault, battery, negligence, products liability, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Torts fall into three general categories:

intentional torts (e.g., intentionally hitting a person);
negligent torts (causing an accident by failing to obey traffic rules); and
strict liability torts (e.g., liability for making and selling defective products). 

Intentional torts are those wrongs which the defendant knew or should have known would occur through their actions or inactions.  Negligent torts occur when the defendant's actions were unreasonably unsafe.  Strict liability wrongs do not depend on the degree of carefulness by the defendant, but are established when a particular action causes damage.

Tort law is state law created through judges (common law) and by legislatures (statutory law).  Many judges and states utilize the Restatement of Torts (2nd) as an influential guide.  The Restatement is a publication prepared by the American Law Institute whose aim is to present an orderly statement of the general law of the United States.

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