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Tort or torte?
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Despite the similarity in appearance and pronunciation, torte and tort are two words with very different meanings. One of them is something delicious, made of cream and pastry. The other--is not.
A tort is an injury and unless that torte you ate for dessert was made out of questionable ingredients, which caused you to become very sick, “tort” and “torte” have nothing in common.
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We all grew up with mothers or teachers who said, “Watch out--you can hurt somebody,” Remember: “Don’t run with that stick, it can take an eye out" or "Don’t throw that egg at him, you can take an eye out.” (When you stop to think about it there is very little in this world that can’t take an eye out.)
Torts (the injury) are so common if every injury was punished we all would constantly be in court. So, the courts developed a whole body of law (a set of rules the judges will follow) which designate what is a tort and what is just an accident that is not anybody’s fault. Torts generally deal with things going wrong and who caused them to go wrong.
The standard legal definition of a tort is “a civil wrong,” which is one of those legal terms much easier to say then to define. The closest I can translate it into current English is “my bad,” which professional athletes like to say after they make a boneheaded play. A mistake by itself is not enough to create a tort, it also must result in an injury to a person or property.
Torts are a lot like crimes. In fact, some torts are also crimes, like punching someone in the nose or spraying graffiti all over a garage door. But there is a big difference, a crime is an offense against the public or the community, whereas a tort is a private thing.
The punch in the nose that would be considered assault and battery, which is both a crime and a tort. The cops will arrest the perpetrator, the criminal courts will probably convicted him and he goes to jail. The public officials have done their duty to keep the community safe. But what about the guy who got punched out? What about the doctor bills, missed work, pain and suffering? Since this crime is also a tort the victim can sue for his costs and damages.
Oh, did I mention that tort law is all about getting people money to compensate them for their injuries?
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