Law of Torts
What this domain tests
Tort law tests civil wrongs and remedies, especially negligence, occupiers' liability, nuisance, trespass, defamation and vicarious liability.
Core rules
- Negligence requires a duty of care, breach of the standard of a reasonable person, causation (factual and legal) and damage that is not too remote.
- Duty is established by established categories or by a policy-based test. Professionals are judged against a reasonable body of professional opinion.
- Causation uses the 'but for' test, with material contribution where multiple causes operate. Remoteness asks whether the kind of damage was reasonably foreseeable.
- Defences include contributory negligence, voluntary assumption of risk, illegality and statutory limitation.
- Vicarious liability requires a relationship (usually employer/employee) and a tort committed in the course of employment.
- Nuisance protects use and enjoyment of land; trespass protects direct interference with land; defamation protects reputation and requires publication, defamatory meaning and no applicable defence.
Worked example
A driver speeding in a residential area hits a pedestrian who stepped out without looking. The driver owes a road-user duty and breached it by speeding. The pedestrian's injury is caused by the collision and is foreseeable. The pedestrian's own carelessness may reduce damages for contributory negligence, but does not necessarily defeat the claim.
Traps
Do not assert a duty without explaining its source. Res ipsa loquitur is an evidential inference, not a substitute for proving negligence. Do not confuse nuisance with trespass. In defamation, always address the defence and the meaning of the words.