Wyoming Tort Laws

People commonly associate mass tort with substantial settlements involving large corporations. One of the biggest mass tort cases is that of 3M earplugs. In 2023, the manufacturer settled 260,000 tort cases for $6 billion.

But before becoming a massive legal action, mass torts start as individual tort cases. A tort is a civil wrong that causes injury, death, or loss to a person, property, or business. 

Personal injury is the most common tort case filed in U.S. District Courts, with nearly 116,000 filings in 2022. However, personal injury cases like medical malpractice, product liability, and assault are just one type of tort. Based on the definition above, tort also encompasses injury to property, such as trespassing.

This article seeks to provide essential information for people planning to file a tort action. It will discuss topics such as Wyoming’s comparative negligence rule, the benefits of joining a mass tort, filing deadlines, and legal aid resources.

Basic Tort Categories in Wyoming

Individuals or organizations can commit torts through their actions or failure to act, whether they intend to cause harm or not to the person suing, known as the plaintiff. They are commonly grouped into three categories — intentional, negligent, and strict liability torts.

Negligent Torts

Negligent torts arise out of carelessness or failure to observe a duty of care. The action or inaction that caused harm to the plaintiff was not intentional. Many personal injury cases involve medical malpractice, car accidents, and slips and falls. 

The plaintiff must establish the four elements of negligence to win a negligent tort case: 

• Duty of care - The defendant (i.e., the person or entity being sued) had a duty of care for the plaintiff’s safety. For example, a doctor has the duty to ensure that medical treatment will not harm the patient. 

• Breach of duty - The defendant failed in their duty of care. For example, a fellow driver failed to observe traffic rules, resulting in a car crash. 

• Causation - The breach directly caused a harmful event.

• Damages - The plaintiff suffered damages due to the harmful event. 

Intentional Torts

In cases of intentional torts, the defendant had a general or specific intention to cause harm to the plaintiff. General intent means the defendant knew that their action/inaction may cause harm. Pointing a gun at a crowd to threaten them, without aiming at a specific person, shows general intent. 

Meanwhile, specific intent means the action/inaction was committed to produce a particular harm. For example, punching someone you were angry at to hurt them is specific intent. Common cases of intentional tort include assault, battery, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. 

Strict Liability Torts

In strict liability torts, the law holds the defendant responsible for damages resulting from their action/inaction, regardless of whether they were negligent, intentionally caused harm, or took all precautions to avoid harm to others. 

The plaintiff must show that what the defendant did or failed to do caused their injury. This legal concept usually applies in cases involving product liability, animal attacks, and abnormally dangerous or ultrahazardous activities.

For example, a manufacturer will be held liable for injuries caused by a defective product. In the same way, dog owners are responsible for the physical injuries their dog causes to other people. 

Abnormally dangerous activities are those that have an inherent risk of harm, such as fireworks manufacturing. The manufacturer will be liable for any accidents that happen during production due to the hazardous nature of the activity. 

Other Tort Categories in Wyoming

Other common torts are nuisance and business torts. These categories usually involve damage to public or private rights and commercial interests. 

Nuisance Torts

A nuisance is an action that may pose a threat to the rights of the public or a private individual, typically concerning health, comfort, and safety. 

Under Wyoming Statutes Section 6-6-201, a resident may be sued for nuisance if they own, lease, maintain, or use a building, vehicle, or boat for the following purposes:

• Lewdness, assignation, or prostitution;

• Gambling;

• Illegal manufacture, sale, disposition, or possession of controlled substances or liquor.

Business Torts

Business torts are actions or wrongful business practices committed by an individual or a business entity that harm the operation of another business. Some common business torts include:

• Negligent misrepresentation;

• Tortious interference with contracts or business relationships;

• Fraud;

• Breach of fiduciary duty;

• Antitrust violations;

• Conversion.

Individuals who have suffered harm from nuisance or business torts can sue for damages or another legal remedy, such as an injunction. It is recommended that you consult a Wyoming litigation attorney to understand the available legal options. 

Tort vs. Crime in Wyoming

A tort is a civil wrongdoing, a violation of a private individual or entity’s civil rights resulting in damages. Meanwhile, a crime is a wrongdoing against society. Below are other distinct differences between torts and crimes: 

Some torts can also be charged as a crime, particularly intentional torts like battery. The government may charge the defendant since violence against another person is a criminal act. The person who was battered can also file a separate tort case of personal injury to recover the medical bills they incurred due to the resulting injuries. 

Mass Torts in Wyoming

A mass tort is a lawsuit comprising multiple individual tort cases with similar complaints against a single defendant or group of defendants. Mass torts usually involve physical injuries caused by the same action, product, or event the defendant was responsible for. 

For example, in a mass tort involving the acid-reflux drug Zantac, longtime users allegedly developed gallbladder and liver cancers. The plaintiffs claimed that the drug broke down in the body into N-nitrosodimethylamine or NDMA, a carcinogen.  

Individual cases against the producer of Zantac were combined into a mass tort since the plaintiffs claimed similar complaints (physical injury) that were allegedly caused by the same product (Zantac). 

Most individual torts that develop into mass torts are cases involving:

• Harmful pharmaceuticals (Zantac, Tylenol, Risperdal);

• Defective medical devices and products (Paraguard IUD, 3M earplugs, Philips CPAP machine);

• Large-scale catastrophes (commercial plane crashes, chemical spills);

• Toxic exposure (Camp LeJeune water contamination).

Most plaintiffs choose to join a mass tort for the following benefits: 

• Since multiple cases are litigated simultaneously, legal costs are reduced, and the timeline gets shorter. The plaintiffs’ legal teams can share resources and evidence to bolster each plaintiff’s claims, minimizing investigation costs. 

• Plaintiffs have better chances of maximizing compensation. A large group of complainants gives more legitimacy to the claims versus a single plaintiff suing a large corporation. 

Mass Torts vs. Class Actions

While both mass tort and class action involve multiple plaintiffs suing the same defendant, here are some of their differences: 

The Mass Tort Process

Grouping cases into a mass tort helps the legal system by reducing the number of individual cases in civil courts and lowering costs through a more efficient process. A mass tort litigation generally goes through the stages below:

1. Case evaluation - Cases filed in different courts are reviewed for similarities. Those that have sufficient similarities are combined into a mass tort and filed in a single federal court to be processed by one judge. In some situations, cases that are filed in various federal courts are consolidated into “multidistrict litigation,” or MDL.

2. Discovery - This phase is dedicated to gathering evidence, witness testimonies, and expert opinions. Case information is exchanged between the plaintiffs’ attorneys and the defendants. 

3. Bellwether trials - Selected individual cases go through bellwether trials. These are essentially sample trials that help the plaintiffs and the lone defendant gauge which cases will stand well in court and which will not. 

4. Settlements - After getting an estimation of their case’s worth and chances of winning through the bellwether trials, the plaintiffs and their attorneys may negotiate a settlement with the defendant.

5. Trials - Cases that are not settled may proceed to individual trials before a jury or judge. 

Wyoming Tort Liability Insurance Requirements

Tort liability insurance can pay for the plaintiff's losses and the defendant's legal costs. 

Below are liability insurance policies that are required by law in Wyoming:

The Statute of Limitations for Tort Cases in Wyoming

Tort cases must be filed in court within a specific deadline or “statute of limitations.” Failing to file within the deadline may result in the case being dismissed. In most cases, the statute of limitations begins on the date the tort was committed or the date the injury was discovered, depending on the type of tort and the discovery rule.

Mass torts may have separate filing requirements. It is best to work with a mass tort litigator to ensure the case is filed on time.

See below Wyoming’s statute of limitations for common tort actions: 

How Much Can Someone Sue in a Tort Case in Wyoming?

Tort plaintiffs may seek compensation for their economic and non-economic damages. 

Economic damages refer to the plaintiff’s calculable financial damages, including medical expenses, lost income, property damage, and funeral costs in the event of death. The worth of economic damages is easily calculable from receipts and cost projections, as the plaintiff may have already been billed or have paid for them.

Non-economic damages address intangible losses, such as pain and suffering, emotional distress, disability, and loss of enjoyment of life or consortium. A litigation attorney can help plaintiffs calculate the dollar value of these damages. 

Wyoming does not cap or limit the amount of compensatory damages (economic and non-economic) that a plaintiff can claim. Wyoming Constitution Article 10 Section 4(a) prohibits limiting compensation for physical and emotional injuries. 

In some cases, such as the Camp Lejeune mass tort, plaintiffs may be offered a certain amount for their damages without going to court. The Justice Department and Navy offered payouts ranging from $150,000 to $450,000 as an “Elective Option.” This helps resolve claims quickly versus pursuing a lawsuit. 

Punitive damages, on the other hand, are not intended to compensate the plaintiff but to punish the defendant. These may be awarded in cases where the defendant acted in egregious negligence or with intention to harm. An auto accident caused by DUI or intentional acts of violence like battery may incur punitive damages. 

Modified Comparative Negligence

If the plaintiff was partly to blame for their injury, it may significantly impact the amount of compensation they may receive due to Wyoming’s modified comparative negligence rule. The rule reduces the plaintiff’s compensation in proportion to their fault percentage. 

For example, if a car accident plaintiff was also speeding when the accident happened, they may be deemed 10% at fault for their injuries. Their compensation of $50,000 will be reduced by 10% to $45,000. Note that if the plaintiff’s fault is over 50%, they will be barred from claiming any amount of compensation. 

Other Legal Remedies in Tort Cases in Wyoming

Sometimes, obtaining financial compensation is not enough to resolve a tort case or prevent it from happening again. Below are other legal remedies the plaintiff can seek in addition to or in place of monetary compensation. 

Injunction

An injunction, or injunctive relief, is a court order for a certain party to immediately stop performing a certain action or prohibit them from carrying out the act in the future. For instance, a farmer may ask for an injunction to prevent a neighbor from trespassing on their land and damaging their crops. A business owner may seek injunctive relief against a business partner who has been selling off business equipment. 

Injunctions may be granted as temporary restraining orders, preliminary injunctions, or permanent injunctions. 

Restitution

In tort cases where the defendant unfairly gained from their actions, the plaintiff may seek restitution. For example, the defendant in a business tort had stolen money from the company and used it to gain profits. The plaintiff may seek restitution to recover compensation based on the profits gained instead of just recovering the stolen amount. 

Resources for Tort Victims in Wyoming

Equal Justice Wyoming

This statewide program was formed by the Wyoming Supreme Court to be a resource for low-income residents. It gives access to legal information, self-help forms, and other legal aid providers in the state. Note that it does not provide legal representation.

Residents can browse its website to find legal information per topic and find a lawyer or legal clinic that can provide low-cost representation. It also has a physical self-help center in the Hathaway Building, Room 155, 2300 Capitol Ave., Cheyenne, WY. Equal Justice Wyoming has computer kiosks residents can use for legal research and the preparation of court documents. 

Wyoming Free Legal Answers

Low-income residents can get answers to legal questions for free through this online legal clinic. Questions can be submitted through its website and answered by pro bono lawyers via email. Residents can register online to see if they qualify for this free service. 

Wyoming State Bar Modest Mean Program

The program is for people whose income does not qualify for free legal aid but also cannot afford legal services at regular rates. Its member attorneys offer legal assistance at reduced fees (no more than $100/hour and $1,000 retainer fees). The resident must submit an application online to determine eligibility and get an attorney referral.