A tort is a civil wrong against a party or parties. Cases involve a plaintiff/s suing a defendant/s. In New York State these cases are typically brought in New York State Supreme Court, which is the trial level court in New York State, for matters involving an amount in controversy of over $50,000, or fifty thousand dollars. The lower level Civil Court is reserved for matters involving $50,000 and under. Within the lower level Civil Court, matters for $10,000 and under are further reserved for the Small Claims Court. Small Claims Court is designed for pro se litigants. However, people may choose to retain an attorney if they choose.
Torts cases run a wide gamut, and one of the more common is negligence. For a plaintiff to prove a negligence case, the plaintiff needs to make out all the elements. These are 1) that the defendant owed the plaintiff a duty of care, 2) the defendant breached the duty of care, 3) there was causation which caused 4) the plaintiff damages. If the defendant is able to disprove any one of these elements, the defendant may have a successful defense.
Torts cases are typically brought for money damages. Some people may ask “What good is money?” after someone has been harmed or damaged. After all, money is not going to reverse the hands of time to restore plaintiffs to the way they were prior, and plaintiffs will never get back what they lost. In our civil justice system, the only way we can attempt to make Plaintiffs whole again is to pay them money damages. We cannot reverse the hands of time, so the only thing we can do is to pay Plaintiffs money damages.
LoBrutto Law, P.C. 