Common Types of Intentional Torts

July 16, 2024 | Sagi Shaked | Personal Injury

An intentional tort arises when someone performs an intentional act that physically injures you or violates your rights. Think of the difference between someone who accidentally hits your car after running a red light versus someone who intentionally runs your motorcycle off the road in a fit of road rage.

Naturally, since you can sue someone who injures you through negligence, you can also sue someone who injures you intentionally.

Following is a list of some of the most commonly litigated intentional torts.

Assault: In personal injury law, you assault someone by intentionally creating a reasonable apprehension of immediate harmful or offensive contact. You don’t have to touch someone to assault them. Someone pointing a gun at you would constitute assault, even if the gun wasn’t loaded, if you believed it was loaded.
Battery: Point a loaded gun at someone, and it’s assault. Pull the trigger, and it’s battery. Battery is an Intentional and wrongful physical contact with someone without their consent. Although it can result in injury, sexual assault is still an intentional tort, even if there is no physical injury.
False Imprisonment: False imprisonment doesn’t have to involve the police or prison. Locking your spouse in their bedroom during an argument, for example, is false imprisonment. False imprisonment is intentionally restricting another person’s freedom of movement without authority, justification, or consent.
Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress (IIED): Revenge porn, harassment, bullying, stalking, and similar behavior might constitute intentional infliction of emotional distress. IIED is outrageous conduct that intentionally or recklessly causes the victim severe emotional distress.
Trespass to Land: Trespass to land is intentionally entering or remaining on land owned by someone else without permission. It might apply, for example, if you are a restaurant owner and you ask someone to leave your establishment due to unruly behavior, and they refuse to leave.
Trespass to Chattels: Trespass to chattels is intentionally interfering with someone else’s lawful possession of personal property (as opposed to real property). For example, taking someone’s car out for a joy ride without their permission is trespass to chattels, even if you return the car undamaged.
Conversion: Conversion is intentionally exercising dominion over someone else’s property, thereby depriving them of its use. Borrowing someone’s car without their permission and accidentally wrecking it would constitute conversion.

Theft is conversion, but so are certain other activities that do not constitute theft.

Damages

Courts can award the following types of damages, assuming that you qualify for them:

Property damage: Damage to or destruction of your property. Damage to your car in a road rage incident, for example.
Economic damages: Easy-to-count damages such as medical expenses and lost income.
Non-Economic damages: Emotional distress, pain and suffering, and other intangible losses.
Punitive damages: An extra sum that a court might award you to punish the defendant and deter others (see below).

You must prove your entitlement to every dime of damages that you claim.

Special Case: Punitive Damages

Most states, including Florida, permit you to add punitive damages to your claim under certain circumstances. Since the purpose of punitive damages is to punish the defendant rather than to compensate you, the defendant’s conduct must have been outrageous. Courts are reluctant to award punitive damages on top of economic and non-economic damages even when the plaintiff wins the lawsuit.

However, when it comes to intentional torts, an award of punitive damages is more likely. That is because intentional misconduct is more likely to qualify as outrageous than unintentional, negligent behavior.

Affirmative Defenses to Intentional Torts

Below is a rundown of some of the most common affirmative defenses to intentional torts.

Expiration of the statute of limitations deadline. In Florida, you typically have two years to file a lawsuit over an intentional tort. If you miss the deadline, the judge will dismiss your claim. Several exceptions exist, however.
Consent: In some cases, the defendant can use your consent as a defense. If you voluntarily agree to a boxing match, for example. you cannot win a lawsuit against your opponent for knocking you out.
Self-defense or defense of others is a legal justification for violence under many circumstances.
Privilege: A law enforcement officer, for example, can perform certain acts in the course of duty that an ordinary citizen cannot.

If you claim an affirmative defense, you have the burden of proving it on a “more likely than not” basis.

Intentional Torts vs. Crimes

A tort is a civil wrong justifying monetary damages. A crime, by contrast, might justify incarceration or even the death sentence. Many of the same actions that constitute intentional torts also constitute crimes. Beating someone, for example, can constitute both civil battery and criminal battery.

A lawsuit against a defendant for a civil wrong can proceed at the same time as a criminal prosecution for the same conduct. Additionally, you can still win a civil claim even if a court acquits the defendant of the equivalent criminal charge.

The reason for this inconsistency is that the burden of proof for a civil lawsuit (a preponderance of the evidence) is a lot easier to meet than the burden of proof for a criminal charge (guilt beyond a reasonable doubt).

Lawsuit vs. Settlement

Settling your case out of court is generally quicker than winning at trial. But in many cases, you have to file a lawsuit to squeeze a settlement out of a stubborn defendant.

Remember, even if you file a lawsuit, you can still settle your claim at any point prior to a final verdict.

Do You Need a Lawyer?

You might not need a lawyer for a claim against someone who trespasses on your land without doing any real harm. By contrast, if someone points a gun in your face, you’re going to need to respond vigorously.

If you’re not sure whether you need a lawyer or not, schedule a free initial consultation with an experienced personal injury attorney.

Contact Our Personal Injury Law Firm in Miami, FL

If you’ve been injured in an accident in Miami, FL and need legal help, contact our Miami personal injury lawyers at Shaked Law Personal Injury Lawyers to schedule a free consultation.

Shaked Law Personal Injury Lawyers
20900 NE 30th Ave Suite 715
Aventura, FL 33180
(305) 937-0191