Wanton Tort Vs. Negligence

If you find yourself in a legal situation you may not understand the specificity involved. For instance, torts can be difficult to comprehend. Anytime you are dealing with the legal aspects of a person's rights you should get a clear view of the terms as soon as possible. This article is designed to clarify the distinction between a wanton tort and negligence.

The Definitions of Tort

We have all heard of tort reform, but what is tort? A tort, by definition is basically a breach of a person's legal rights. This encompasses many types of rights where the plaintiff can recover damages at the defendant's expense. There are two primary types of torts where all valid actions fall into these categories. One definition is a civil breach of duty between persons and the other is a civil wrong. To remind you, in law, everyone has a legal duty not to harm others and every person has the right not to be harmed.

What is a Wanton Tort?

By legal definition, the term wanton usually means to use malice or to willfully act (or refusing to act) despite the known risks. So, committing an offense against someone else without motive, or refusing to follow through with your legal duty despite the consequences are both considered wanton behavior.

One example would be if person A is driving along and sees person B on a bike in the bike lane. Person A then decides honk or swerve close to person B without provocation despite the fact that he/she knows that it may scare person B and result in injury.

Another example could be if a person spilled something on a slick floor, but instead of cleaning it up or posting a sign, they left it there without warning others because they thought it would be funny to watch someone fall. This is malicious in nature and without provocation. Obviously, the person is aware that an injury can occur and is refusing to do their legal duty to protect the safety of others.

What is Negligence?

In life, we all have duties to ourselves and all those around us. We are not only expected to use care and common sense for our own benefit when living our daily lives but also to any and all people we come in contact with, to a certain extent that is. This is where the term negligence comes in. Negligence is failing at our duty to use care.

Many different circumstances and situations could highlight legal duties that we face everyday. For instance, driving is one very good example. When we get behind the wheel of our vehicles, we have the legal duty to keep ourselves safe and make sure to use care on the road by following the rules and laws. If a person fails at this duty by, let's say talking on the phone or texting, someone could get hurt and the person responsible could be found negligent because they were not paying attention.

Another example could be, watching someone's child and not locking the gate to the pool. Now, if we take on the responsibility to watch a child, we are responsible for keeping that child safe, that is our legal duty. If the child then gets hurt or drowns because the gate was not locked, the legal duty has been breached and obvious negligence played a role. While this person is not maliciously trying to hurt the child, their lack of responsibility caused injury.

What is the Difference Between Wanton Tort and Negligence?

After reading the above you may have figured out that there is a big difference between a wanton tort and negligence. It breaks down like this: Negligence is basically reckless behavior that leads to an injury whereas a wanton tort is greater than merely being careless, it is being deliberate in actions regardless of the possible results.