Torts & Personal Injury Flashcards

Which set lists the four elements a plaintiff must prove in a negligence claim?

Answer: Duty, breach, causation, damages

Negligence requires duty, breach, causation, and actual damages.

A facility's guard ignores a known spill and a visitor falls. Which element is most directly at issue?

Answer: Breach of the duty of care

Ignoring a known hazard is a failure to act as a reasonable person would, which is breach.

Under pure comparative negligence, a plaintiff who is 30% at fault for a $100,000 loss may recover:

Answer: $70,000

Pure comparative negligence reduces recovery by the plaintiff's percentage of fault.

Under traditional contributory negligence (still followed in a few states), a plaintiff who is even slightly at fault generally:

Answer: Is barred from recovery

Contributory negligence is a complete bar in the few jurisdictions that retain it.

The doctrine of res ipsa loquitur allows a jury to infer negligence when:

Answer: The event ordinarily does not occur without negligence and the defendant controlled the cause

Res ipsa permits an inference of negligence from the nature of the accident itself.

Proximate cause limits liability to harms that are:

Answer: A reasonably foreseeable result of the conduct

Proximate cause cuts off liability for unforeseeable, remote consequences.

A visitor knowingly enters a marked, restricted live-fire range and is hurt. Which defense is most relevant?

Answer: Assumption of the risk

Voluntarily encountering a known, appreciated danger can bar or reduce recovery.