Tort
Tort is sometimes viewed as the causes of action which are not defined in other areas such as contract or fiduciary law. However, tort and contract law are similar in that both involve a breach of duties, and in modern law these duties have blurred and it may not be clear whether an action "sounds in tort or contract"; if both apply and different standards apply for each (such as a statute of limitations), courts will determine which is the "gravamen" (the most applicable). Circumstances such as those involving professional negligence may involve both torts and contracts. The choice may affect time limits or damages, particularly given that damages are typically relatively limited in contract cases while in tort cases noneconomic damages such as pain and suffering may be awarded. Punitive damages are relatively uncommon in contractual cases versus tort cases. However, compensation for defective but not unsafe products is typically available only through contractual actions through the law of warranty.
Mt. Healthy City School District Board of Education v. Doyle
Some tort-law specialists have been very critical of the burden-shifting test. Georgia law professor Michael L. Wells finds it at odds with the fundamental principles of tort law and thus wrongly decided. "It should be replaced by a rule that allows the plaintiff to recover full damages when the constitutional violation was sufficient to cause them." The Court, he wrote in 2000, could have found other causation tests in tort law that were fairer to the plaintiff than but-for, such as suffi. "It is especially ill-suited to constitutional torts charging retaliation for the exercise of First Amendment rights" since it ensures that an employee who speaks out on a matter of public concern will have to consider the possibility that his or her employer will find some plausible reasons for taking action against him apart from his protected speech or other activity.