Introduction to Negligent Torts - Tort Law - Lecture Notes, Study notes of Law

Download Introduction to Negligent Torts - Tort Law - Lecture Notes and more Study notes Law in PDF only on Docsity! Lesson Plan: Torts I Lesson: Introduction to Negligent Torts I. Goals: Studying negligent torts helps students: A. gain a basic understanding of one of the fundamental areas of civil law; B. develop an awareness of the duties of care members of society owe to one another; C. understand the notion of proving up different elements in order to establish a legal wrong; and D. see examples of the differences between criminal and civil law. II. Objectives: A. Knowledge Objectives - As a result of this class, students will know: i. the meaning of the word “tort”; ii. the elements of a negligent tort; and iii. the defenses to a negligent tort. B. Skills Objectives - As a result of this class, students will be better able to: i. identify each element of a negligent tort in a given fact scenario; ii. articulate the various defenses available to a negligent tortfeasor; and iii. express their points of view regarding potentially controversial subjects. C. Attitude Objectives: As a result of this class, students will: i. take greater care in their everyday lives due to their awareness of the notion of duties of care; and ii. feel comfortable knowing that there are remedies for a variety of accidents that can happen to people. III. Classroom Methods: A. PowerPoint Presentation (see PPT for in-depth explanation of material) i. Review (Slide 2): Basic overview of the differences between criminal and civil law.1 ii. Opening Hook (Slides 3-5): What is a tort? a. Show students pictures of (a) torte; (b) strange creature (real or fictitious); and finally (c) video of torts iii. Definition of a Tort (Slide 6) a. Provide students with multiple definitions of “tort”. Examples include (a) Black’s Law Dictionary; (b) laymen’s terms; or (c) definition in Street Law textbook. 1 Note, there is only one slide with a very basic overview of these differences. This lesson plan assumes there has been a more in-depth overview prior to this class. Docsity.com iv. Torts: Fact or Fiction? (Slide 7): Provide students with several actual tort claims and poll the students as to whether they believe the events underlying the claim actually happened. v. Types of Torts (Slide 8): a. Explain that there are a wide variety of torts. b. Provide several examples of actual, but unbelievable torts, and poll students as to whether they think the tort happened or not. c. Explain that torts can be broadly classified as negligent (injury results from an actor’s negligent behavior), intentional (injury results from an actor’s intentional behavior) or strict liability torts (applies to activities that have been deemed so dangerous that an actor is liable if there is an injury, regardless of why it happened, e.g. blasting with dynamite). vi. Elements of a Negligent Tort (Slide 9) a. Duty (Slides 10-11): Explain the basic concept of duty and exercising due care. Ask students to give examples of the duty of due care for a number of individuals (e.g., lifeguard, owner of aggressive dog, etc.). b. Breach (Slide 12): Explain the basic concept of breach. c. Causation (Slides 13-20): Explain that there are two types of causation, causation in fact and proximate cause, both of which need to be shown for there to be a tort. Explain the difference between the two types of causation, why proximate cause is more difficult to determine and some of the basic proximate cause theories. Next choose several students to act out the different roles in a series of hypotheticals. The hypotheticals are designed to get the students to think about the limits of proximate cause. Therefore, in all of the hypotheticals it can be assumed that Ken Griffey, Jr. had a duty, which he breached and this was cause in fact for the relevant injuries. After each hypothetical stop the action and ask students to tell you whether there was proximate cause or not and explain the rationales for their answers. d. Damages (Slides 21-22): Explain to students the basic idea of damages, i.e. that all injuries can be compensated with some monetary amount. vii. Defenses to a Negligent Tort (Slide 23): a. Contributory Negligence – the negligence of the plaintiff contributed to the plaintiff’s injury so damages should be denied. b. Comparative Negligence – the negligence of the plaintiff contributed to the plaintiff’s injury so damages should be reduced accordingly or denied. c. Assumption of Risk – the plaintiff consented to engage in certain activity that plaintiff knew carried certain risks and therefore damages should be denied. d. Illegality – the plaintiff was engaged in an illegal activity when plaintiff was injured so damages should be denied. IV. Evaluation A. Group Hypos (see attached) Docsity.com