AZ Bar Torts

Question 1

What are the four elements a plaintiff must prove to establish a negligence claim?

Accepted Answer

Duty, breach, causation, and damages

Answer

Negligence requires proof of duty, breach of that duty, causation (actual and proximate), and resulting damages.

Question 2

Under the traditional common law rule, what duty does a landowner owe to a trespasser?

Accepted Answer

A duty to refrain from willful or wanton injury

Answer

Under traditional common law, landowners owe trespassers only a duty to refrain from willful, wanton, or reckless conduct that causes injury.

Question 3

The 'reasonable person' standard in negligence is best described as:

Accepted Answer

What an ordinary person of ordinary prudence would do under similar circumstances

Answer

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.

Question 4

Under the 'but-for' test of actual causation, a defendant's conduct is the cause in fact of the plaintiff's harm if:

Accepted Answer

The harm would not have occurred but for the defendant's negligent conduct

Answer

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.

Question 5

Which doctrine allows a court to infer negligence from the fact of an accident without direct proof of specific negligent acts?

Accepted Answer

Res ipsa loquitur

Answer

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.

AZ Bar - Arizona Bar Exam Practice Test

AZ Bar - Arizona Bar Exam Practice Test

AZ Bar Torts