Tort and Personal Injury Law
What is the reasonable person standard?
a test to evaluate whether the defendant acted as a reasonable person, under similar circumstances and with similar abilities would have acted.
What is negligence per se? How is this used to prove a defendant behaved negligently?
conduct that is inarguably negligent. Often a violation of a statute (ex. speed limit)
Define legal duty
An obligation for a person to meet a certain standard of care
How is an unavoidable accident different from typical negligence?
An unavoidable accident is caused by a physical condition, such as sudden and unexpected weather, and not by the people involved in the accident being careless.
What is a Tort?
A wrongdoing by one person (A) to another person (B) that results in injury to B or his property.
How is tort law made?
Common law, Restatement of torts, constitutional law, and administrative law
How are Restatements related to tort law?
Courts often rely on the restatement of torts in order to reach decisions in cases
What are the elements that compromise negligence?
Duty Breach Causation Damages
What is a special relationship for purposes of duty?
Families (mother, child) Job (employer, employee) Motorists to other motorists
How is it determined whether a breach of duty has occurred?
If a defendant's conduct does not meet the conduct of a reasonable person in the same situation.
What are the major categories of torts?
Negligence, intentional torts, and strict liability
Is a reasonable person a perfect person?
No
Do you owe a duty to a person you do not know? Explain fully
No. An unforeseeable plaintiff is one the defendant could not have reasonably anticipated would be harmed by her actions.
How is gross negligence more extreme than regular negligence?
Regular negligence = careless behavior Gross negligence = when a person acts recklessly or with a willful disregard for another person's safety
What are the differences between tort and criminal law?
Standard of proof and who the plaintiff is
How does the Risk-Utility Test differ from the learned hand formula?
The Risk-Utility test looks at if the magnitude of risk caused by the act outweighs the utility of the act.
What is proximate cause?
The cause reasonably connected with the plaintiff's injury that did in fact cause the injury.
What is the relationship between duty and foreseeability?
The defendant owes the plaintiff a duty to act reasonably if the defendant's conduct creates a foreseeable risk to the plaintiff.
Why is it so difficult to define a tort?
The definition of a tort keeps growing to include new types of lawsuits
What level of knowledge is a reasonable person supposed to have?
The level of knowledge available to the defendant at the time of the injury
Who is the plaintiff in a tort case? Who is the plaintiff in a criminal case?
The victim of the tort The state
What are the differences between the burden of proof in a tort case and the burden of proof in a criminal case?
Tort case: a preponderance of the evidence Criminal case: beyond a reasonable doubt
What are the major purposes of tort law?
justice via compensation
Explain the Learned Hand formula
weighs the burden of taking precautions vs. the likelihood and potential severity of an injury to determine whether conduct was negligent
