Definitions of Common Legal Terms

A tort is "a wrong; a private or civil wrong or injury resulting from a breach of a legal duty that exists by virtue of society's expectations regarding interpersonal conduct. The elements of a tort are: the existence of a legal duty owed by the defendant to a plaintiff, reach of that duty and a causal relation between the defendant's conduct and the resulting damage to the plaintiff." Barrons Law Dictionary 493 (3ed 1991)

A contract is "a promise, or a set of promises, for breach of which the law gives a remedy, or the performance of which the law is some way recognizes as a duty. The essentials of a valid contract: a proper subject matter, consideration, mutuality of agreement and mutuality of obligation. A transaction involving two or more individuals whereby each becomes obligated to the other, with reciprocal rights to demand performance of what is promised by each respectively. The total legal obligation which results from the parties' agreement as affected by law." Barrons Law Dictionary 97 (3ed 1991)

Damages are "monetary compensation which the law awards to one who has been injured by the action of another; recompense for a legal wrong such as a breach of contract or a tortious act. There are various measures used for calculation damages, including diminution of value and cost of competition." Barrons Law Dictionary 117 (3ed 1991)

An injury is "any wrong or damage done to another, either in his person, rights, reputation, or property. Unlike the ordinary meaning of injury (that which damages the body), a legal injury is any damage resulting from a violation of a legal right, and which the law will recognize as deserving of redress." Barrons Law Dictionary 238 (3ed 1991)

A loss is "the act of losing or the thing lost; synonymous with "damage"; as used in an insurance policy, "a state of fact of being lost or destroyed, ruin or destruction; and where a policy requires notice of a loss, refers to the date that a fraud was discovered." Barrons Law Dictionary 284 (3ed 1991)

Market value is "the price that goods or property would bring in a market of willing buyers and willing sellers, in the ordinary course of trade. It cannot be determined on the basis of a price that would be acceptable to a buyer or seller operating under pressures or constraints….Market value is generally established on the basis of sales of similar goods or property in the same locality." Barrons Law Dictionary 291 (3ed 1991)