American common law recognizes more than a dozen intentional torts, and the standard list of intentional torts sorts them into four groups: wrongs against the person (assault, battery, false imprisonment, and intentional infliction of emotional distress), wrongs against property (trespass to land, trespass to chattels, and conversion), wrongs against reputation and privacy (defamation and several privacy claims), and wrongs against economic interests (fraud and tortious interference). Two more torts, malicious prosecution and abuse of process, protect people from misuse of the legal system itself.
What Makes a Tort Intentional
Before any of these claims can succeed, the plaintiff has to show the defendant acted with purpose or knowledge rather than carelessness. Under the Restatement (Second) of Torts § 8A, intent means the person either wanted a specific harmful result or knew with substantial certainty that the result would follow from what they did.1Harvard Law School Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society. Intentional Harm Swinging a fist at someone’s face is specific intent. Firing a gun into a crowd without aiming at anyone also qualifies, because the shooter knows someone will be hit.
The doctrine of transferred intent extends liability when aim fails. If someone tries to hit one person but strikes a bystander, the law treats the intent as transferring to the actual victim.2Legal Information Institute. Transferred Intent Bad aim is not a defense.
Intentional Torts Against the Person
Assault
Assault is the intentional creation of a reasonable fear that harmful or offensive contact is about to happen.3Legal Information Institute. Assault No physical contact is needed. Raising a fist so the other person genuinely believes they are about to be struck is enough. The threat has to feel immediate; vague warnings about future harm don’t qualify. The victim must also be aware of the threat as it happens, because an assault learned about afterward can’t be sued over.
Battery
Battery is the companion tort: the harmful or offensive contact that assault only threatens.4Legal Information Institute. Battery The defendant doesn’t have to touch skin. Knocking a plate out of someone’s hand or yanking a chair from under them counts, because the law treats objects closely connected to a person as extensions of that person. Consent defeats a battery claim, which is why a boxer can’t sue an opponent for a punch landed within the rules, but the contact has to stay within whatever was agreed to.
False Imprisonment
False imprisonment is the intentional confinement of another person without legal authority or consent.5Legal Information Institute. False Imprisonment A locked room is the obvious method, but threats of force or a false claim of legal authority, such as pretending to be a police officer, work just as well. The victim generally has to know they’re confined or suffer actual physical harm from the confinement. If an unlocked exit is available and the person knows about it, courts usually find no confinement at all.
Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress
Intentional infliction of emotional distress covers conduct so extreme and outrageous that it goes “beyond all possible bounds of decency.” The Restatement (Second) of Torts § 46 sets a high bar: ordinary insults, rudeness, and even aggressive behavior usually don’t qualify.6Legal Information Institute. Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress A creditor who calls daily about a debt is annoying; a creditor who shows up at a debtor’s workplace screaming obscenities in front of clients is closer to the line. The distress itself must also be severe. Courts regularly dismiss cases where the plaintiff was upset but can’t show demonstrable harm.
Intentional Torts Against Property
Trespass to Land
Trespass to land is any intentional, unauthorized physical entry onto someone else’s real property.7Legal Information Institute. Trespass Real property includes the land plus anything permanently attached, like buildings, fences, and trees. A trespasser doesn’t need to know the land belongs to someone else or intend to cause damage. The intent to physically enter is enough, and even throwing an object onto someone’s land counts. The owner can recover damages for any actual harm, and even without harm, courts can award nominal damages or issue an injunction.
Trespass to Chattels
Trespass to chattels covers intentional interference with someone else’s personal property, meaning things like a car, phone, computer, tools, or a pet.8Legal Information Institute. Trespass to Chattels Unlike trespass to land, this one requires actual harm: the item was damaged, lost value, or the owner lost its use for a meaningful period. Borrowing a car without permission and returning it with an empty tank would qualify. Recovery usually covers the repair cost or the value of the lost use.
Conversion
Conversion is the more serious property tort. It happens when a person takes such complete control over someone else’s property that the law treats it as a forced sale.9Legal Information Institute. Conversion Destroying an item, refusing to return it, or selling it to a third party all qualify. The difference from trespass to chattels is degree. Trespass to chattels is a scratch on the paint; conversion is driving the car to another state and keeping it. The standard remedy is the full fair market value of the property at the time of conversion, which effectively forces the defendant to buy what they took.
Intentional Torts Against Reputation and Privacy
Defamation
Defamation protects people from false statements of fact that damage their reputation. When the statement appears in a durable form, such as writing, a published article, or a social media post, it’s libel. When it’s spoken and leaves no permanent record, it’s slander. Either way, the plaintiff must prove the statement was false, communicated to at least one other person, and caused harm to their standing.
Some categories are considered so inherently damaging that courts presume harm. These “defamation per se” categories traditionally include false claims that someone committed a crime, has a serious contagious disease, engaged in sexual misconduct, or is incompetent in their profession. A plaintiff whose case fits one of these doesn’t have to trace specific lost income or opportunities.
Public officials and public figures face a steeper climb. Under New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, they must prove the defendant published the statement “with knowledge that it was false or with reckless disregard of whether it was true or false.”10Justia US Supreme Court. New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254 (1964) This “actual malice” standard has nothing to do with spite. It asks whether the defendant knew they were lying or simply didn’t care whether the statement was true, and it makes defamation lawsuits considerably harder for celebrities, politicians, and other public figures to win.
Intrusion Upon Seclusion
Intrusion upon seclusion covers prying into someone’s private affairs, such as hidden cameras in a bedroom, hacking into private messages, or unauthorized searches of personal records.11Legal Information Institute. Intrusion on Seclusion The plaintiff must show a reasonable expectation of privacy in whatever the defendant invaded.
Public Disclosure of Private Facts
This claim applies when someone broadcasts genuinely private information, like medical records, sexual history, or financial details, and the disclosure would be highly offensive to a reasonable person. The information doesn’t have to be false. The harm comes from exposing what should have stayed private.
Appropriation of Likeness
Appropriation occurs when someone uses another person’s name, image, or identity for commercial gain without permission.12Legal Information Institute. Appropriation A company that puts a celebrity’s face on its product packaging without a licensing deal commits this tort. Damages typically include any profits the defendant made from the unauthorized use.
Intentional Torts Against Economic Interests
Fraud
Fraud requires an intentional misrepresentation of a material fact, made to induce someone to act, that the victim reasonably relied on and that caused financial loss.13Legal Information Institute. Fraud Each element matters. The lie must concern something significant, not puffery like “this is the best product on the market.” The victim has to actually rely on the false statement, and that reliance has to be reasonable. A buyer who discovers obvious defects during inspection but proceeds anyway will struggle to claim reliance. Courts typically award the financial losses caused by the deception, and in egregious cases, punitive damages as well.
Tortious Interference
Tortious interference comes in two forms. Interference with an existing contract occurs when a third party intentionally and wrongfully causes one side to break a binding agreement.14Legal Information Institute. Tortious Interference A competitor who bribes a supplier to stop delivering parts is the classic example. The defendant has to use improper means; legitimate competitive tactics like offering a better price generally don’t count. Interference with prospective economic advantage covers situations where no binding contract exists yet but the plaintiff had a probable future business relationship that the defendant disrupted. This version is harder to prove because the opportunity has to be more than speculative.
Torts Against the Legal Process
Malicious Prosecution
Malicious prosecution lets someone sue a person who initiated baseless legal proceedings against them out of spite or improper motive. The plaintiff must show four things: the defendant started criminal proceedings against them; those proceedings ended in the plaintiff’s favor through acquittal, dismissal for lack of evidence, or a similar outcome; the defendant lacked probable cause to bring the charges; and the defendant acted with malice rather than genuine belief in guilt. A dismissal on a technicality or a mistrial doesn’t count as a favorable outcome. The resolution has to actually suggest innocence.
Abuse of Process
Abuse of process differs from malicious prosecution in a subtle but important way. Instead of challenging whether proceedings should have been brought at all, it targets the misuse of legitimate legal procedures for an improper purpose. Filing a valid lawsuit purely to harass the defendant into settling an unrelated dispute is a textbook example. The plaintiff has to show an ulterior motive and some concrete action to misuse the process beyond simply filing the case.
Defenses That Can Defeat These Claims
Even when a plaintiff proves every element, an affirmative defense can defeat the claim. These defenses don’t deny the act happened. They argue it was justified.
Consent is the most straightforward. If the plaintiff agreed to the conduct, the wrongful element disappears. Consent can be express, like a signed waiver, or implied from the circumstances, like stepping into a boxing ring. It must come from someone with the capacity to understand what they’re agreeing to, it can’t be obtained through fraud or threats, and the defendant’s conduct can’t exceed what was agreed to.15Harvard Law School. Restatement (Second) of Torts on Consent A patient who consents to knee surgery hasn’t consented to an experimental procedure on their spine.
Self-defense protects a person who uses force against an imminent threat. The force used has to be proportional to the threat, the danger has to be immediate rather than vague or future, and the defendant generally can’t be the one who started the fight.16Legal Information Institute. Self-Defense Defense of others follows the same logic. If you reasonably believe a third person is facing imminent harm, you can intervene with proportional force. Courts judge these situations by what a reasonable person would have believed and done under the same circumstances, even if the belief turns out to be mistaken.
Defense of property allows reasonable, non-deadly force to protect land or belongings. Deadly force is never justified to protect property alone, whether through direct action or through traps and spring guns. For personal property, reasonable force can be used to recover stolen items in the immediate aftermath of a theft. For real property, most states don’t allow physical self-help evictions. Shopkeepers get a limited exception: they can briefly detain suspected shoplifters using reasonable force when they have reasonable grounds for suspicion.
Necessity is a defense to trespass and property damage during an emergency, and it splits into two forms that work very differently. Public necessity applies when a person damages property to protect the community, like firefighters demolishing a building to create a firebreak. It is an absolute defense, so the defendant owes nothing for the damage.17Legal Information Institute. Public Necessity Private necessity applies when someone trespasses or damages property to protect their own interests, like docking a boat at a stranger’s pier during a storm. Private necessity keeps the defendant from being thrown off the property while the emergency lasts, but they must pay for any damage they cause.18Legal Information Institute. Private Necessity Protect the public and you owe nothing; protect yourself and you owe repairs.
What a Winning Plaintiff Can Recover
An intentional tort verdict can produce two categories of money. Compensatory damages reimburse actual losses: medical bills, lost wages, repair costs, and similar out-of-pocket harm. Non-economic compensatory damages cover harder-to-quantify injuries like pain and suffering, emotional distress, and humiliation. In assault and battery cases, courts have long recognized that the indignity of the attack itself is a compensable harm, even when physical injuries are minor.
Punitive damages are different. They exist to punish the defendant and discourage similar behavior rather than to compensate the plaintiff. Courts reserve them for conduct that is willful, malicious, or particularly reckless. Some states cap punitive damages by statute, so the rules vary by jurisdiction.
How Long You Have to Sue
Every intentional tort claim has a statute of limitations, a deadline after which the right to sue expires. These deadlines vary significantly by state and by the type of tort, typically ranging from one to six years from the date of the harmful act. Missing the deadline is fatal to the claim regardless of its merits, and courts almost never grant exceptions. Anyone considering a lawsuit should identify the applicable deadline in their state as early as possible.