A tort is a civil case where a plaintiff or claimant is seeking damages as compensation for the harm they suffered. This field of law covers a lot of domains, including personal injuries, medical malpractice, professional and general negligence, product liability, and even some aspects of real estate law.

Most folks who do this sort of work end up specializing in one of those fields. When someone advertises their services as a negligence attorney, they usually deal in professional and general negligence. Take a look at what that means and how that might affect your case.

1. What Is Professional and General Negligence?

The legal concept of injury is much broader than the way the average person would use the term. Injuries may be physical, but they may also cover specific failures that harmed others in non-physical ways. For example, an architect may face a professional negligence claim. If an architect failed to account for particular engineering issues that a reasonable professional would expect them to deal with, that might be a form of negligence.

General negligence follows a similar line of thought, but it involves people who aren't licensed professionals. For example, a landlord may be found generally negligent for not dealing with known problems affecting a rental property such as radon.

2. What Is the Reasonableness Standard?

You'll note from the architect example above that there is a question about what a reasonable person would expect. If someone works in a professional field, such as civil engineering, the standard of reasonableness is defined by other professionals. A negligence attorney making a case of this type would likely hire an expert witness with a background in engineering. The expert witness would then explain in a deposition, a report, or court testimony whether or not they believe a similarly situated professional would've objected to what the defendant did.

Claims and Lawsuits

The main vehicle in these kinds of cases is a civil claim. Your negligence attorney would submit a claim to the other party's insurance company if they have coverage. If not, they'd present the claim directly to the defendant. The defense will investigate the claim and decide whether it's valid. If it is valid, they'll offer a settlement. Lawsuits are less common. You might sue if the other side rejects the claim or if you can't reach an agreement on damages. You can learn more about claims and lawsuits by contacting attorneys like Franklin L. Jones, Jr.