In civil law, any entity can be found to be negligent if there is loss to an individual based on the failure to act, inadvertent action, or intentional action of another person or entity. In the legal profession, when there is injury or damage to one part from another part, the act is called a "tort." A tort is a wrongful act that, when committed, causes injury to another. Tort law has been developed to help injured parties to seek compensation and redress when they are harmed or wronged. The laws have been developed to form a clear and cogent chain of responsibility so that people or businesses or other entities are held responsible when they do something negligent.
As stated, there are millions of different applications for tort law from medical malpractice or vehicle product liability to retail store negligence and disease from products. In order to prove this negligent behavior, you need to have proof of the loss in the form of financial losses, medical bills or loss of physical capability and you need to be able to prove that their negligence, through inaction, accidental action or intentional action caused the harm. In many cases, the level of punishment will be determined by the intention of the act committed.
For example, in the case of Merck, the pharmaceutical company who created Vioxx, they were cognizant of the dangers of the drug, especially to people with heart conditions but they intentionally acted to put the drug on the market despite the problem. As a result, they have not only been found culpable of product liability because they released a defective product, they are also guilty of fraud, failure to warn and improper marketing.
Likewise, when looking at cases of retail negligence, Wal-Mart is likely to suffer large damages because of their negligence towards employees in locking them into stores late at night and forcing them to work unpaid overtime and through breaks and meals. Lowe’s on the other hand, although potentially guilty of mis-handling overtime payments at least acted within the law by implementing a Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) approved method called the Fluctuating Workweek Method to compensate employees.
Most importantly, all of these methods of claiming compensation when wronged as an employee or as a consumer keep the major companies of the U.S. in check from running roughshod over the “little guy.” The purpose of tort litigation is to protect people from injury and harm at the hands of another and although there are some instances of tort fraud and mishandling, in many cases tort helps people and reminds companies that when they do something negligent it can have real consequences to real people.
If you feel you have been the victim of negligence or that you have a case that falls under tort law, you should contact an attorney to get qualified and reasonable advice about your claim. You should protect your rights if they have been violated and collect any compensation that may be due to you because of harm inflicted, unfairly, by another person or business entity.