Torte. Usually pronounced “tort” in English, but properly “TORT-a” Dictionary definition (we’re not making this up): a cake made with many eggs and often grated nuts or dry bread crumbs and usually covered with a rich frosting.

A tort is simply a wrong (other than a breach of contract) for which a court can provide relief or damages. A simpler way of putting it is something that you can be sued for (that is not breach of contract). In one of those little language evolutions that we are so fond of, the word “tort” has come to mean the lawsuit as well as the underlying wrong. Lawyers and politicians like to use the word “tort” because it sounds cool and us poor civilians are mystified by it.

Traditionally one of the first classes you take in Law School is “Torts and Contracts,” and the course could as easily be called “how to sue people.”
As far as we can determine, all law suits are the result of a tort or a breach of contract. A breach of contract is technically different from a tort because the contract is an agreement between two or more parties, and a breach is not necessarily a “wrong.” In fact torts (and therefor civil court actions) are based on Common Law and are not crimes (violations of a statute or ordinance), but there is often overlap because governments feel obliged to write laws to cover every action imaginable. Possibly because in a criminal action the defendant can be fined, in which case the fine goes to the government, like a tax. In a civil action for tort or breach of contract, the government can only collect the costs of conducting the trial. The standard example from the “Torts and Contracts” textbook is tresspassing. You can sue someone for trespassing on your property (a tort) even if you can’t get the cops to charge them with “criminal trespass.”

And a more pertinent example lately is that you can sue someone for “wrongful death” (tort) independent of a prosecution for murder (crime).

No doubt a lawyer reading this will say that we are oversimplifying, but as the Bishop said to the actress, “it’s enough to be getting on with.”