Core tort law rules and doctrines tested on the bar exam.
39 cards · basic cards · AI-written, checked twice. Edit anything.
- What are the elements of battery?
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Harmful or offensive contact with another person's body, intent to cause contact or knowledge that contact is substantially certain, and actual contact.- What intent must be shown for battery?
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Intent to cause the harmful or offensive contact, or knowledge that such contact is substantially certain to result from the defendant's conduct.- Define assault.
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An act which places another in apprehension of imminent harmful or offensive contact, with intent to cause that apprehension or knowledge that it is substantially certain to result.- What is the key distinction between assault and battery?
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Assault requires apprehension of imminent contact; battery requires actual harmful or offensive contact.- What are the elements of false imprisonment?
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Intentional confinement or restraint of another within fixed boundaries, with intent to confine or knowledge that confinement is substantially certain, and the confined person is aware of the confinement.- Define trespass to land.
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Intentional entry onto land in the possession of another without permission, or remaining on such land, or causing a third party to enter such land.- What is conversion?
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An intentional exercise of control over a chattel which is so serious as to deprive the owner of use and enjoyment thereof.- What is the key distinction between trespass to chattels and conversion?
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Trespass to chattels is minor interference with possession; conversion is such serious interference that full ownership compensation is required.- What are the prima facie elements of negligence?
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Duty of care owed to the plaintiff, breach of that duty, causation (both cause in fact and proximate cause), and damages.- How is duty determined in negligence?
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The question is whether the defendant owed a legal duty to the class of persons that included the plaintiff to avoid the type of harm suffered.- How is breach of duty proven in negligence?
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By showing the defendant's conduct fell below the standard of care expected of a reasonable person under the same or similar circumstances.- What is cause-in-fact (actual cause)?
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The but-for test: the defendant's conduct is a cause in fact if the injury would not have occurred but for that conduct.- What is proximate cause (legal cause)?
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A limitation on liability based on whether the harm and its manner of occurrence were foreseeable, such that it would be fair to impose liability.- What types of damages can be recovered in a negligence action?
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Compensatory damages for economic loss (medical bills, lost wages) and non-economic loss (pain and suffering), but not punitive damages absent recklessness or worse.- What is comparative negligence?
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A doctrine allowing a partially negligent plaintiff to recover damages reduced by the percentage of fault attributable to the plaintiff.
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