2) Tort Law

Question 1

Definition of tort

Answer 1

• A civil wrong committed against a person or property (real or personal) for which the court provides a remedy in the form of an action for money damages

Question 2

Tort law involved parties

Answer 2

• The person who sustains injury or suffers pecuniary damage as the result of tortious conduct is known as the plaintiff
• The person who is responsible for inflicting the injury and incurs liability for the damage is known as the defendant or tortfeasor

Question 3

Purposes of Tort Law

Answer 3

• Assessment of culpability
• Compensation
• Deterrence
• Vindicate legal rights and interests

Question 4

Additional effects of Tort Law

Answer 4

• Encourage innovation

- Increase costs of goods and services

Question 5

Three types of tort liabilities

Answer 5

• Intentional
• Negligent
• No-Fault

Question 6

Intentional tort

Answer 6

• Committed on purpose and done with the realization, to a substantial certainty, that harm would result

Question 7

Types of neglicence

Answer 7

• Misfeasance

- Nonfeasance

Question 8

Degrees of neglicence

Answer 8

• Ordinary Negligence: Failure to conform to a standard of care, inadvertence, neglect
• Gross Negligence: Wanton and willful disregard of the health and safety of others

Question 9

Elements of negligence

Answer 9

• Duty of Care
• Breach of Duty
• Injury
• Causation (preponderance of the evidence)

Question 10

Duty of care

Answer 10

• Obligation to conform to a standard of care

Question 11

Standard of care

Answer 11

• Describes what conduct is required of a person in a particular situation

Question 12

Duty of care is determined by

Answer 12

• Law or regulation
• Judicial determination
• Industry standards, institutional rules
• Peer testimony
• Conventional wisdom of jury

Question 13

Breach of duty

Answer 13

• Failure to conform to that obligation; deviation from recognized standard
• Often characterized as the standard of a “reasonable person of ordinary prudence” (includes concept of objectivity and foreseeability)

Question 14

Causation

Answer 14

• The act being the actual and legal cause of the injury
• Cause in fact; (“but-for”)
• Legal cause: (“foreseeability”)
• Would anyone of ordinary prudence and intelligence have anticipated the danger to others caused by his or her negligence?

Question 15

Res Ipsa Loquitor (speaks for itself)

Answer 15

• Sometimes there is a substitute for proof of causation
• The kind of thing that doesn’t happen absent one’s negligence
• The injury has to have been caused by an instrumentality or agency within the defendant’s control
• Must not have been caused by some voluntary action of plaintiff

Question 16

Res ipsa loquitor in Florida

Answer 16

• Infrequently applied

- No res ipsa in malpractice except in the case of the retained surgical instrument/ foreign object

Question 17

Loss or damage

Answer 17

• No injury, no damages, must be actual, provable and not imaginary
• Past and future medical expenses
• Lost wages, past and future
• Rehabilitative expenses
• Pain and suffering, loss of consortium and other “non-economic” damages
• Damage to property as well

Question 18

Contributory negligence

Answer 18

• Under common law, the doctrine of contributory negligence barred recovery by the plaintiff if he caused or contributed to the injury

Question 19

Comparative negligence

Answer 19

• Modern doctrine

- Jury assigns a percentage of negligence to plaintiff and offsets damage award accordingly