Legal Speak Made Easy

“Delict” and “Tort”

In South Africa, you will normally come across the term “delict” in cases involving claims for damages. It is different to a “criminal wrong”, which allows the state to prosecute an individual for a crime. It is rather a “civil wrong” which enables private persons to sue each other for compensation for harm wrongfully caused to one person by the other person’s conduct. You also occasionally see references in South Africa to “tort”, but that’s not part of our law and is just an English legal term for the same thing.

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