Independent commentary and analysis covering tort law, personal injury, litigation, insurance disputes and developments in American civil law.
In the guides
Tort law
A tort is a private wrong the injured person can take to court. How it differs from a crime and a broken contract, the three kinds of liability, and what a court can award.
Draws on Cornell’s Wex encyclopedia (a secondary reference) and federal court guidance. Tort rules are set state by state.
Read the tort law guidePersonal injury
What you must prove, which losses are easy to document and which are not, how an insurance claim differs from a lawsuit, and why there is no single national deadline.
California court guidance as a labeled example. Not medical malpractice.
Insurance disputes
Sort out whose policy is involved, put the decision next to the policy wording, and know what a state complaint can and cannot do.
The complaint process described is Texas’s.
What happens once a dispute is likely to reach court.
Once a dispute is reasonably foreseeable, routine cleanup can give way to a duty to preserve relevant records. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 37(e) separates ordinary loss of electronic information from destruction intended to deprive the other side of it.
Federal electronic-evidence rule; state courts and physical evidence can differ.
The stages of a civil case, from the complaint and the answer through discovery, summary judgment and trial, and the court deadlines at each step.
Federal rules as the worked example; California court guidance for state courts.
Every claim has a deadline to file. When the clock starts, how the discovery rule can delay it, and why claims against the government can come due much sooner.
California and Texas as labeled examples; each state sets its own periods.
What a release gives up, how a general release differs from a limited one, and what to check before you sign: liens, payment timing and court approval for a minor.
California statute and court forms as the labeled example; federal tax points only.
When an agreement binds, and what a breach claim has to show.
Courts ask what each side said and did, not what they privately meant. How that objective test decides whether a deal exists, and where sales of goods work differently.
California statutes cited and labeled.
A valid agreement, your own performance or a good excuse, the other side’s breach, and resulting harm, each usually shown with ordinary records.
Elements, defenses and deadlines vary by state.
Fees and confidentiality before and during representation.
Advance fee, true retainer or flat fee: knowing which one you are signing changes what is refundable and when.
Florida Bar guidance as a labeled example; your agreement and state rules control.
Privilege protects communications made to get or give legal advice, not every conversation involving a lawyer, and everyday habits can waive it.
Exceptions and waiver rules differ by jurisdiction.
Fault
How your own share of fault can shrink an injury award or block it entirely, under contributory, pure comparative, and 50% or 51% bar rules.
California, Texas and the contributory jurisdictions as labeled examples.
Proving negligence
How a broken safety law and an accident that “speaks for itself” each help prove carelessness, and what each doctrine still leaves the jury to decide.
California Evidence Code as the labeled example.
Emotional distress
What a plaintiff must prove, why “outrageous” and “severe” set such a high bar, and how negligent infliction claims differ.
California jury instructions as the labeled example.
Property
Both cover interference with someone else’s property, but only conversion makes the wrongdoer pay the item’s full value. Where the line falls, and when money counts.
California jury instructions as the labeled example.
Damages
How economic losses such as bills and lost pay differ from pain and suffering, plus loss of consortium, punitive damages and caps. No claim values.
California statutes as the labeled example.
Fatal injuries
A survival action carries on the claim the person who died could have brought; a wrongful death claim compensates the family for the loss. Who files, and what each covers.
California statutes as the labeled example.
Property
Whether the person in control of a property was careless about a danger they knew or should have known about, and how notice and visitor status can matter.
California jury instructions as the labeled example.
Products
The three kinds of product defect, the tests courts use for a design defect, and why keeping the product matters after an injury.
California jury instructions as the labeled example; federal recall resources.
Reputation
Why a hurtful statement is not automatically defamation: false fact versus opinion, the fault public figures must prove, and short filing deadlines.
California law as the labeled example, with two U.S. Supreme Court decisions.
Employers
When an employer pays for an employee’s wrong: scope of employment, detours and frolics, contractors, and claims for negligent hiring.
California jury instructions and Vehicle Code as labeled examples.
Bad faith
When an insurer’s handling of a claim crosses from a denial into bad faith, how first-party and third-party claims differ, and what a regulator can and cannot do.
Texas statutes and California jury instructions as labeled examples.
Your own policy
What uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage pays when the other driver has no insurance or too little, and why that claim is against your own insurer.
Texas Insurance Code as the labeled example.
After a payout
How your insurer can pursue the person who caused the loss, what that means for your deductible, and why you should tell your insurer before you settle.
Washington and Texas guidance as labeled examples.
CWC LAW is an independent publication of legal information, not a law firm, and nothing here is advice about your situation. Each guide links the sources it relies on, says which jurisdiction a rule comes from, and labels hypotheticals as hypotheticals. No guide is presented as attorney-reviewed.
About CWC LAW, editorial standards and the privacy note.