Acute and chronic inflammatory liver diseases (hepatitis), are common gastrointestinal diseases and represent a major health and medical problem. Currently the treatment of hepatitis is based on antiviral therapy and liver transplantation, depending on the type and severity of the disease. In fulminant hepatitis and advanced cirrhosis, only treatment is liver transplantation. Existing antiviral therapy is not sufficiently effective, it has many side effects, developing of experimental models of hepatitis helps to find new and more effective drugs and drug delivery systems. Most experimental models are based on surgical techniques or hepatotoxic substances. With the use of hepatotoxins in animal models, experimental models of hepatitis are being created, the pathogenesis of the disease is being observed, potential therapeutic substances are being applied and their effectiveness is being analyzed. Evaluation of hepatotoxicity is performed using biochemical and histopathological methods. Due to the reproducibility of hepatotoxic effects in laboratory animals, a model of acute toxic hepatitis caused by paracetamol has become the most common experimental model to study the toxic effects of xenobiotics on the liver. For viral models developed to date have proven to be viable, reproducible and exhibit characteristics similar to those of acute liver failure in humans. The only restriction is that rabbits are only sensitive species to which they are applicable. Each individual experimental model reflects a certain aspect of acute liver failure, but we lack a model which would encompass all aspects. Despite these limitations, experimental models of hepatitis will continue to have an important role in future scientific research, providing us with new findings about the pathogenesis and therapy of liver diseases.