Damages - Tort Law - Lecture Notes, Study notes of Law

Download Damages - Tort Law - Lecture Notes and more Study notes Law in PDF only on Docsity! 1 Lesson: Torts (A/V)/Negligence/Damages I. Goals A. Learn what it means to be responsible community members/citizens – appreciate their duty to act as reasonable people under the circumstances. B. Learn how to analyze a negligence case (duty, breach, damages) C. Learn what the goal of a negligence action is. D. Understand the law -- their legal and moral obligations as members of the community. E. Think critically. II. Objectives A. Knowledge objectives: 1. Construct counterfactual world. 2. Learn what harms are legally compensable. 3. Know how to act responsibly, legally, and morally. B. Skills objectives: As a result of this class, students will be better able to: 1. Appreciate (and respect) their responsibility as members of the community. 2. Behave as law abiding citizens and responsible community members. 3. Know how to construct counterfactual world, and compare to factual world (calculate damages). C. Attitude objectives: Students will be better able to feel: 1. That the law is rational, positive and protective. 2. A sense of community – responsibility to the other community members. III. Classroom Methods (1) Immediately count off by threes (2) Put them into groups around the room (3) Pass out Handout #1 (“Happy Bobby – 2002 w/ written story on back) (4) Teacher introduces the class to “Happy Bobby – 2002.” [read out loud – kids read along] Meet Bobby Williams, on January 26th 2002. He is 26 years old. After graduating from high school, Bobby started working construction, and is now a journeyman carpenter, he makes $34,000 a year and expects a raise when he receives his “master certification”. Bobby has always Note: not college educated Docsity.com 2 been an athlete. He enjoys the outdoors and many of his vacations are centered towards adventure travel. During his travels Bobby has shown an affinity for language and is fluent in Spanish. He is engaged to a first year resident in radiology, that he met rock climbing at Mt. Baker. She currently makes about $40,000/yr. but expects to make $125,000/year when she completes her residency in December, 2004. They live together in a daylight loft above an art gallery in Pioneer Square. They plan on getting married next summer in Maui, and he looks forward to starting a family. (While Teacher #1 is reading, Teacher #2 draw picture on the board) (5) Direct the students to create a list of what they envision Bobby’s life being like in January of 2005 on the transparency (6) Have each group throw out one or two answers (7) [Teacher] Tell the story about the kids throwing snowballs at cars: Bobby was driving home from work on January 27th of 2002. It had been snowing all day, and the roads were a little bit icy. All of the college kids are home from college. Two freshman college students are home from UC Santa Barbara, and they’re excited about the snow. They start throwing snowballs at each other and soon they start throwing snowballs at passing cars. One of the snowballs they throw hits Bobby’s windshield. Bobby flinches as a snow ball hits his windshield and in that split second he loses control of his car on the icy road and smashes his car into a guard rail. As a result of the accident Bobby’s spinal cord was severed and he will never walk again. (8) [Teacher] Now remember from yesterday’s class that everybody has a duty to act as a reasonable person would under the circumstances. Was that duty breached? Was it reasonable to throw snowballs at cars passing on an icy road? Handout #1 (Bobby’s life January 2002) ? January 2005 Docsity.com