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→Introduction to tort law claims
The word ''tort'' comes from the Latin word for wrong. ''Tort law'' covers things like personal injuries, motor vehicle accidents, negligence, assault and battery, trespass, and more. A tort is a breach of a duty someone owes to another, such as a duty not to hit someone, a duty to drive carefully, or a duty not to dig a hole someone might fall into. Not all harmful actions are torts. It's crucial to talk with a lawyer to see if harm done to you is a tort.
Most tort claims come from the ''common law'', which means the vast majority of them are legal claims that judges (rather than legislatures) have developed over the decades, or even centuries, as courts have recognized the need for new kinds of legal claims to address problems in society. For this reason, tort claims are not typically written out in based on legislation, unlike the laws around spousal support under specific family law claims in the ''Family Law Act'' or ''Divorce Act'', or the rules against robbery or assault in crime laws of the ''[https://canlii.ca/t/7vf2 Criminal Code]''. This That said, there some torts are a few ''statutory torts''that are written into legislation. One example is the claim for ''violation of privacy'' under the provincial ''Privacy Act'', where government has stepped in and written a law that which defines specifically what the tort of violation of privacy is.
Tort claims are commonly brought in ''civil proceedings'' rather than ''family law proceedings'', but they can be brought in a family law case too. If a claim for ''assault and battery'' is made in a family law claim, a judge will treat it as a ''tort law'' claim and apply common law principles and rules to the family case.