Q&As

A attacks B and causes B to sustain serious physical injuries. In terms of the civil cause(s) of action available, would the claimant’s claim be for damages for personal injury or alternatively damages in the tort of battery? Would there be any other civil remedies? Surely, a personal injury claim essentially is founded in the tort of negligence but A has not been negligent.

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Produced in partnership with David Green of 12 King's Bench Walk
Published on: 19 March 2018
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The issue here is between ‘a claim for personal injuries’, and ‘a claim in Negligence or in battery’, which is itself a confusion between a form of damage (and its remedies) on the one hand, and a cause of action on the other.

Personal injury’ is not a tort—it is a sort of damage resulting from a tort, which gives rise to a legal right to a remedy. It is to be contrasted with other physical damage—or example, to property, and other forms of tortious interference with a person’s rights (for example, the damage to one’s reputation that results from the tort of defamation).

If A attacks B, and B is physically

David Green
David Green

A personal injury and employment barrister with particular interest and expertise in occupational disease, military and international claims, and in discrimination and whistleblowing cases.

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Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom
Key definition:
Damages definition
What does Damages mean?

The monetary compensation awarded by law to a person for the legal wrong done to him.

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