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In the last portion of this chapter, we discuss lawsuits against schools and school psychologists.

Civil liability, simply stated, “means that one can be sued for acting wrongly toward another or for failing to act when there was a recognized duty to do so” (Hopkins & Anderson, 1985, p. 21). Civil liability rests within the basic framework of the law of tort. A tort is a civil (not criminal) wrong that does not involve a contract. It is a complex area of law. In general, the court considers four questions in tort cases: (1) Did injury occur? Injury means a wrong or damage done to the student’s person, rights, reputation, or property. (2) Did the school owe a duty in law to the student? (3) Was there a breach of duty? That is, did the school fail to do what it should have done? A tort can arise when either an improper act or a failure to act causes injury to the student. (4) Is there a proximate cause relationship between the injury and the breach of duty? (Evans, 1997).