Personal Injury and Automobile Accident Assistance in Phoenix, AZ

Apart from legislation granting a right to sue for a specific harm, personal injury law generally consists of tort law and the civil procedure for enforcing it. This article discusses how tort law is classified.

In a sense, torts are certain general standards of civil conduct. As a practical matter, however, torts are nothing more than a collection of theories for suing people for money.

A person who commits a tort is known as a tortfeasor. Torts can be classified into four categories based on the kind of mental state, if any, that is required on the part of the tortfeasor to commit the tort.
The first category of torts is intentional torts. An intentional tort is a tort in which the tortfeasor acts intentionally to cause the victim harm. Examples of intentional torts include assault, battery, false imprisonment, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

The second category of torts is unintentional torts. This "category" is really one tort, the tort of negligence, in which the tortfeasor acts unintentionally, but nonetheless improperly, to cause the victim harm. Medical malpractice, for example, is the tort of negligence applied to the professional acts of medical doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals. Poor driving causing an automobile accident is another example of the tort of negligence.

The third category of torts is strict liability torts. A strict liability tort is a tort in which the tortfeasor acts to cause the victim of harm, and it is irrelevant whether or not the tortfeasor acted intentionally to cause the victim harm. Examples of strict liability includes the harm caused by wild animals and inherently dangerous products.

The fourth category of torts is torts that may be committed either intentionally or unintentionally. These are torts in which the tortfeasor acts either intentionally or unintentionally, but nonetheless improperly, to cause the victim harm. Examples of torts that may be committed either intentionally or unintentionally include defamation and invasion of privacy.

Torts may also be classified by the nature of the tortfeasor's act.
Malfeasance is an act that is illegal or wrong. Misfeasance is a legal act done in a wrongful manner. Nonfeasance is not acting when one is required to act.

Aviation insurance includes markets for general aviation, commercial aviation, manufacturers of aircraft and aircraft components, and owners and operators of airports. Airport owner and operator liability insurance policies generally cover damages from injuries at airports or due to airport operations.

Premises liability coverage for airport owners and operators may cover a wide variety of occurrences, depending on the size of the airport and its passenger volume. Typically, policies for airport owners and operators cover liability to third parties for injuries occurring anywhere on airport property, including parking lots, walkways, elevators, and escalators. Such policies are likely also to cover any injuries arising out of activities necessary or incidental to airport activities.


To determine the breadth of the coverage of such policies, specific policy language should be reviewed. For example, it may be contended that an accident involving an aircraft that is taxiing or taking off is not covered under an airport owner liability policy even though the accident occurs on airport property. A commercial aviation liability policy is likely to define "in flight" as taking off but not taxiing, and taxiing may be the subject of other coverage. Thus, the specific language of the insuring agreement and other provisions of the airport owner and operator liability policy such as an "other insurance" provision would have to be reviewed to determine whether the policy provides coverage for such an accident.


Hangar-keeper's liability coverage is available to airport owners and operators and is analogous to garage-keeper's liability coverage. Such coverage provides protection against loss or damage to the property of others kept in or about the airport hangar.


Airport owners and operators may also obtain product liability coverage to insure against claims of third parties arising from malfunction of parts or products supplied to the owners and operators and used in the repair or maintenance of equipment or otherwise resold to the third parties.

A declaratory judgment action may be brought by a plaintiff who is unsure of his legal right to recover from a defendant. This type of action is available to both an insured and an insurer to determine each party's rights, duties, obligations, and liabilities under an insurance policy.

Why seek declaratory judgment
An insured may bring the action to compel an insurer to provide coverage for a loss or to defend the insured in an underlying claim, whereas the insurer may bring the action seeking a declaration that it is not required to provide coverage or to defend the insured.

When to seek declaratory judgment
A declaratory judgment action must be ripe for consideration. An action is ripe for consideration if it is so far advanced that nothing remains for the court to do but to render a judgment.

An insurer may argue that the declaratory judgment action is not ripe for consideration if the underlying claim is unresolved. Some courts hold that a declaratory judgment action can be determined without considering the facts of the underlying claim, especially if the issue in the declaratory judgment action is whether the insurer has the duty to defend the insured in the underlying claim. Other courts, however, hold that declaratory judgment actions are not ripe if the underlying claim is unresolved.

An issue with respect to excess insurance arises if the insured brings a declaratory judgment action against an excess insurer, which asserts that the policy limits of the primary policy must be exhausted before a claim can be made under the excess policy. Generally, courts find that the potential for the exhaustion of the primary limits presents a ripe claim against the excess carrier.


Effect of declaratory judgment
A declaratory judgment by a court has the effect of being a final judgment of the parties' rights and liabilities.

If an insured obtains a life insurance policy, he has the responsibility to designate an eligible beneficiary to receive the proceeds of the policy upon his death. Situations arise, however, where the insured either fails to make any designation of beneficiary or revokes his designation and fails to make a new one.

Beneficiaries fixed by statute
If an insured fails to name a beneficiary or to replace a revoked beneficiary, the proceeds of the policy are usually payable to the persons fixed by statute as eligible beneficiaries. The order of payment of the benefits also generally follows the order set forth in the statute.

Joint designations
If a statute sets forth a joint designation of beneficiaries, such as "to the widow and children," and then designates others who will take in the absence of a widow or children, the widow usually takes the entire benefit if there are no children.

Preference for widow/widower
When no beneficiary designation has been made, an insured's widow or widower is preferred over other potential beneficiaries, such as the insured's estate. A widow or widower will also usually take where there has been no new designation of a beneficiary upon the death of the former beneficiary. However, if the widow or widower is ineligible to take, the insured's children will be preferred to a person claiming the proceeds as an oral gift.

Life insurance can be a valuable tool in planning for the future of one's children and in balancing distribution of assets.

For children and other survivors, the proceeds of a life insurance policy can take care of more immediate needs while social security benefits and property distributions are obtained. Life insurance also is a tool for providing for beneficiaries when assets of the person whose life is insured will not be sufficient to provide the care for survivors desired in the event of an untimely death of the person.

If children will be the beneficiaries of the life insurance policy, some mechanism will be needed to supervise distributions under the policy. While courts will appoint a property guardian for children receiving life insurance benefits and other property, the time and expense of such an appointment may be avoided by naming an adult custodian under the Uniform Transfers to Minors Act (UTMA) in the policy purchaser's home state. The custodian would manage the property in the interests of the minor children until the property is distributed as the children come of age at 18, 21, or 25, depending on the law of the state.

Proceeds of a life insurance policy may also be directed to a trust in favor of minor children to allow the person whose life is being insured greater control over the amount and timing of distributions to minor children as they come of age. However, the trustee for a child's trust has to file yearly income tax returns while the custodian of a UTMA does not, and tax rates on a child's trust property may be higher than the individual child's tax rate under the UTMA.


Life insurance also can be a valuable tool in planning the distribution of one's estate. Thus, if a person will leave behind a business, house, farm, or other property that cannot be divided among several survivors without selling the property and dividing the proceeds, the person may decide to leave the property to one or more specified survivors while naming remaining survivors as beneficiaries in a life insurance policy. Proceeds under such life insurance policies are not considered part of the person's estate and thus are not be subject to an estate tax if the person does not retain "ownership" of the life insurance policies. Such "ownership" is indicated by a right to change beneficiaries, to borrow against the cash value of the policy, or to change features of the policy.

When an insured files a claim with his insurer to recover for a loss, the insurer may pay the amount requested without question, or it may begin the "adjustment" process. This is the process by which the claim is resolved. Various types of "adjusters" may assist in the adjustment process.

A "staff adjuster," or "company adjuster," is a claims official employed by the insurer. When a claim is filed, a staff adjuster may visit the insured property for a property claim, determine whether the policy provides coverage for the loss, ascertain the amount of the loss incurred, and evaluate the insured's evidence.

The insurer may hire an outside "independent adjuster," who is not an employee of the insurer, to perform the functions of a staff adjuster for a particular claim.

Staff and independent adjusters usually possess experience with and knowledge of insurance policies, insurance laws, local adjustment customs, costs for construction and materials, and accounting principles.

An insured may also employ a "public adjuster" on his behalf if he lacks knowledge of the matters regarding assessment of losses and claims procedures. A public adjuster is likely to be familiar with all the areas of expertise of staff and independent adjusters. The insured employs a public adjuster so that both sides have the same level of knowledge when negotiating the claim. The public adjuster's goal is to prepare the claim in such a way so as to maximize the recovery of the insured.