Tort and Regulatory Risk Plan

Recognizing and Minimizing Tort and Regulatory Risk Plan
Managing regulatory risk and torts can be a time consuming and painful process, but when they are managed effectively, the outcomes can bring important benefits that will ultimately contribute to company performance. Before being able to identify and manage torts and regulatory risks it is important to first understand their definitions. A regulatory risk is any risk that a change in laws and regulations will significantly impact a security, business, sector, or market (Investopedia ULC, 2010). As Jennings 2006 states, a tort is an interference with someone or with someone’s property that results in injury to that person or to that person’s property. There are three types of tort liabilities; intentional, negligence, and strict liability. Intentional tort liabilities arise when a party commits intentional acts that result in the harm of a person or their property. Negligent torts refer to careless actions, which are done without thinking about the consequences, usually unintentional. Lastly strict liability can result from violation of a statute or because of public policy issues.  
Common Torts and Risks
Torts can also be classified as property torts and personal torts (Jennings 2006). An example of a property tort would be the act of vandalizing private property, as the injury is done to someone’s property, not to the person individually. An example of personal tort as stated by Jennings 2006, is defamation, because it involves publishing untrue statements about a person, resulting in harm to that person. Defamation can either be verbal or written and usually contains information that can be damaging to a persons reputation, in some cases it can be spiteful in nature. Another example Jennings 2006 gives for tort is contract interference, also called tortuous. This type of tort occurs when a party intentionally persuades another party to break an existing contract or enter into another binding contract...