Torts Flashcards
7 cards from real AZ BAR practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Torts flashcards as text
What are the four elements a plaintiff must prove to establish a negligence claim?
Answer: Duty, breach, causation, and damages
Negligence requires proof of duty, breach of that duty, causation (actual and proximate), and resulting damages.
Under the traditional common law rule, what duty does a landowner owe to a trespasser?
Answer: A duty to refrain from willful or wanton injury
Under traditional common law, landowners owe trespassers only a duty to refrain from willful, wanton, or reckless conduct that causes injury.
The 'reasonable person' standard in negligence is best described as:
Answer: What an ordinary person of ordinary prudence would do under similar circumstances
The reasonable person standard is an objective one — what a person of ordinary prudence would do under the same or similar circumstances, not what this particular defendant believed.
Under the 'but-for' test of actual causation, a defendant's conduct is the cause in fact of the plaintiff's harm if:
Answer: The harm would not have occurred but for the defendant's negligent conduct
The but-for test asks whether the plaintiff's harm would not have occurred but for the defendant's negligent conduct; if harm would have occurred anyway, causation fails.
Which doctrine allows a court to infer negligence from the fact of an accident without direct proof of specific negligent acts?
Answer: Res ipsa loquitur
Res ipsa loquitur ('the thing speaks for itself') permits an inference of negligence when the accident is of a type that ordinarily does not occur absent negligence and was caused by an instrumentality in the defendant's control.
Negligence per se is established when a defendant violates a statute and:
Answer: The plaintiff is in the class protected by the statute and suffers the type of harm it was designed to prevent
Negligence per se applies when a defendant violates a statute designed to protect against the type of harm suffered and the plaintiff is within the class of persons the statute was designed to protect.
Which of the following best describes proximate (legal) cause in negligence law?
Answer: A policy-based limitation on liability for harms that are too remote or unforeseeable
Proximate cause is a policy-based concept that limits a defendant's liability to consequences that are reasonably foreseeable, preventing unlimited liability for every but-for cause.