NCA Torts study plan

Map the duty-of-care framework from established duty categories through the neighbour principle to the current three-stage test, and state the role of each stage in your own words

Distinguish duty from breach by classifying ten short fact patterns into the correct analytical question

Explain the objective reasonable-person standard and identify the four factors used to assess the magnitude of risk

Apply the professional and specialist standard, including the relevance of common practice and informed consent principles

Draft a one-page checklist for establishing duty in novel situations

Analyse breach by weighing likelihood, seriousness of harm, cost and practicality of precautions, and social utility in six scenarios

Evaluate the relevance of a defendant's special knowledge, and of a learner's inexperience, to the standard applied

Explain when res ipsa loquitur-style reasoning is available and when it adds nothing to ordinary inference

Construct an argument that a defendant fell below the standard, and a counter-argument that the burden of precaution was disproportionate

Identify the evidential gaps that most often defeat breach claims

Distinguish factual from legal causation and select the correct test for each

Apply the but-for test and identify its limits in cumulative and multiple-cause cases

Explain how material contribution and material increase in risk operate where but-for proof fails

Analyse intervening acts by third parties and by the claimant, and state the test for a novus actus interveniens

Apply the thin-skull principle and separate it from the scope-of-duty question

Apply the remoteness test to distinguish foreseeable kinds of harm from unforeseeable ones and from unforeseeable extent

Evaluate the complete and partial defences of contributory negligence and voluntary assumption of risk, and state what each requires

Explain illegality as a defence and identify the policy factors courts weigh

Assess the effect of a valid exclusion notice or contractual term on a negligence claim

Calculate an apportionment of damages after a finding of contributory negligence in a worked scenario

Set out the elements of negligent misrepresentation and explain when a duty of care arises for statements

Apply the assumption-of-responsibility test and identify the factors showing reliance was reasonable

Distinguish pure economic loss from consequential economic loss and state the control mechanisms limiting recovery

Apply the occupier's duty to visitors, including the relevance of warnings, children and independent contractors

Explain the employer's non-delegable duty to provide competent staff, safe premises, safe plant and a safe system of work

Evaluate the employer's duty in stress and psychiatric injury claims and the relevance of a recognised psychiatric illness

Analyse the vicarious liability test, distinguishing employees from independent contractors and identifying the close-connection reasoning

Set out the elements of battery, assault and false imprisonment and distinguish each from negligence

Apply the defences of consent, necessity, self-defence and lawful authority to intentional torts

Explain the tort in Wilkinson v Downton-style intentional infliction of physical harm and its mental element

Distinguish private nuisance from public nuisance and from the tort of negligence, and identify who may sue

Apply the factors determining unreasonableness of interference, including locality, duration, sensitivity and malice

Explain the defences to nuisance and the remedies of injunction and abatement

Outline the rule in Rylands v Fletcher-style strict liability and its current relationship with nuisance

Compare compensatory, aggravated and exemplary damages, and state the aim of each

Synthesise all six domains into a single decision tree running from duty through breach, causation, defences and remedy

Complete two full-length mock papers under timed conditions and self-mark against the rubric

Identify the three weakest sub-topics from mock results and re-teach each one

Memorise a compact case-and-principle list for the authorities you will cite under pressure

Rehearse concise issue-spotting openings for hybrid questions that span two domains