[Aturmercy]

Can anyone give me some good tips on how to do well in Tort Law exam? I'm hoping to do only problem questions. I'm not talking about what material to study but you know how to tackle tort problem questions effectively and (assuming ( know all the cases and facts) tips that will help me get 70+ ?

Eg. Time management, listing down all relevant areas before doing the paper and choose one by one whether the question is from that particular area etc?

[suffocation1992]

(Original post by Aturmercy)
Can anyone give me some good tips on how to do well in Tort Law exam? I'm hoping to do only problem questions. I'm not talking about what material to study but you know how to tackle tort problem questions effectively and (assuming ( know all the cases and facts) tips that will help me get 70+ ?

Eg. Time management, listing down all relevant areas before doing the paper and choose one by one whether the question is from that particular area etc?

If you're aiming for 70+, doing all problem questions might make that difficult, because firstly it's tricky to really impress in problems and secondly because of time. Definitely try to prepare some essay questions if you can.

As for general tips regarding tort...

(1) Negligence

Define negligence - breach of a legal duty of care owed by D to the C causing the C damage that is not too remote

Is there a duty of care? - Duty of care is essentially a policy device developed by the courts to avoid unwanted consequences. Could be trite; e.g. driver and pedestrian. Could be a novel situation.

Was that duty of care breached? Breach is an objective test, but there are also different standards of care according to the circumstances; e.g. gravity of the harm, professional standards, cost of precautions etc.

Did the breach of duty cause loss/damage to the C? There must be some personal injury or loss. There may even be purely economic loss, in which case you will need to discuss how a duty can arise in such a case.

Causation - legal and factual? i.e. but-for causation; any intervening acts of third parties breaking the causal chain?

Remoteness - did the D foresee damage of the type that occured?

Defences - contributory negligence (a partial defence) or volenti (a complete defence), illegality?

Remedies


(2) For torts involving mostly statute like occupiers' liability or product liability; start with the statute and use it as a guide.

(3) For the tort of defamation, break it down into its elements; is there a defamatory statement? Is it published? Is it 'of the claimant'? Are there are defences i.e. absolute or qualified privilege, fair comment?

I hope this helps

[gethsemane342]

(Original post by Aturmercy)
Can anyone give me some good tips on how to do well in Tort Law exam? I'm hoping to do only problem questions. I'm not talking about what material to study but you know how to tackle tort problem questions effectively and (assuming ( know all the cases and facts) tips that will help me get 70+ ?

Eg. Time management, listing down all relevant areas before doing the paper and choose one by one whether the question is from that particular area etc?

Plan each question out first. Use a solid structure and be prepared for topics to overlap in the question. Look at past papers to see what you can safely drop (forexample, here, you can safely drop defamation but not much else. I also dropped breach of statutory duty). Read any statutes carefully. And just work through it systematically. I got a first on tort and the main thing I did was plan each question carefully, applying a pre-worked out structure.