what is unintentional tort 
an unintentional tort is a type of unintended accident that leads to injury property damage or financial loss in the event of an unintentional tort the person who caused the accident did so inadvertently and typically because they were not being careful the person who caused the accident is considered negligent because they failed to exercise the same degree of care that a reasonable person would have in the same situation understanding unintentional tortthe most common type of unintentional tort is negligence someone is negligent if they unintentionally cause injury to someone in a situation where a reasonable person would have been aware of their actions enough to not cause harm to prove a defendant was negligent a plaintiff must prove three factors the unintentional negligence tort in courtto prove unintentional negligence in a court of law a plaintiff must first prove that the defendant owed the plaintiff a duty of care or an obligation to avoid careless actions that could cause harm to one or more persons second the plaintiff must prove that the defendant failed to provide the standard of care of a reasonable person standard of care is a gauge of how much care one person owes another and it s higher for some people than others doctors for example owe a higher standard of care toward others than a regular person last the plaintiff must prove that the defendant s actions caused their injuries determining the cause known as cause in fact is often done by applying the but for test as in an injury would not have happened but for the defendant s actions children can be held responsible for the damage they cause but the courts place a different standard of care on a child courts will consider the child s age life experience and what a child of a similar age would have done under similar circumstances children under age 6 are rarely found liable for their actions parents can be held liable if they fail to train their children or properly supervise their activities but they are not automatically held liable for a child s actions however a child can sue a parent if they were injured because of a parent s negligence an example of unintentional tortto illustrate this concept consider a camp counselor that takes a group of campers on a river rafting trip but fails to provide life jackets if a camper falls in and drowns a court might contend that the camper would not have drowned but for the camp counselor s failure to provide a life jacket in this example the camp counselor s negligence was the cause in fact of the injury 