Torts and Insurance Law

The practice of tort law is largely litigation oriented, and so a student who is interested in developing an expertise in tort law should also enroll in courses covering the important aspects of civil litigation. The subject area of tort law includes insurance law because the defense of a tort case is often provided by the defendant’s liability insurer. The presence of an insurer in tort litigation introduces a variety of substantive and strategic considerations that are covered by the basic course on insurance law. Students interested in medical malpractice would benefit from extensive study of the health care system. The Advanced Torts class covers business torts, although students interested in that area would also benefit from taking related courses such as Corporations, Securities Regulation, Business Crime, and Antitrust.

Required Course Learning Outcomes

Torts (LAW-LW.11275)

Fall or Spring semester, 4 credits. This course covers laws that determine the conditions under which one incurs civil liability for having caused harm to the person or property of another. Topics at minimum will include intentional and unintentional injury; fault and no-fault theories of liability; causation; compensatory and punitive damages; affirmative defenses and other limitations of liability; and the interaction between tort and other bodies of law, such as contract and legislative law.

As for the measurable learning outcomes, we agreed on the following:

By the end of the course, students will be examined with respect to their ability to identify the factual circumstances that give rise to different tort claims, and their ability to analyze the associated legal issues with substantively sound analogical reasoning, the characteristic mode of common-law analysis.