What are the common defenses in civil law?

In civil law, common defenses refer to the arguments that one party raises in order to prevent the other party from succeeding in their claim. In Florida, the most common defenses are contributory negligence, comparative negligence, assumption of risk, illegal act, statute of limitations, and laches. Contributory negligence occurs when the party being sued is partially responsible for the injury due to an act of their own. For example, if the injured party was not wearing a seatbelt when the incident occurred, that could be seen as contributory negligence. Comparative negligence is when the injured party has some sort of responsibility for the injury, but it is substantially less than the other parties. As a result, the at-fault parties may only be responsible for a percentage of damages. Assumption of risk occurs when the injured party willingly and knowingly assumed the risk of the activity they were participating in at the time of the incident. An illegal act is when the at-fault party commits an act that is illegal under the law. The statute of limitations is a time limit to file a claim, usually within four years of the incident. Finally, laches is when one party delays filing a claim and this delay causes prejudice to the other party.

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What are the common defenses in civil law?

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