What is a tort?

This is another tricky question. Law students typically spend an entire semester studying Tort Law in law school.

The short and simple answer is that a tort is a wrongful act leading to the wronged party suffering loss, which creates civil legal liability against the wrongful party (called the tortfeasor).

The entire subject area of Tort Law started in the famous case of Donoghue v Stevenson, where poor Mrs Donoghue drank a ginger beer with a dead snail in it. She subsequently fell ill and sued the manufacturer of the ginger beer, Mr. Stevenson. Since Donoghue v Stevenson, Tort Law has developed to include various other torts like Nuisance, Defamation, Misrepresentation, Economic Torts, and many others.

Your lawyer will be able to help you assess which tort had been committed against you, quantify the amount of money you should claim for, and assess the probability of success of you claiming the amount of money owed to you. If your finances are an obstacle to you hiring a lawyer on your own, you should apply to the Legal Aid Bureau (LAB) to see if you qualify for legal aid. Unable to qualify for legal aid? You can try law firms that offer low bono, i.e. below market rate legal services, such as DMO Law Corporation.