Torts on the bar exam

Torts is the most sequence-driven subject on the multiple-choice exam. Negligence questions require duty, breach, actual causation, proximate causation, and damages, and the correct answer usually sits at the one element the facts undermine.

Intentional torts, strict liability, products liability, and the dignitary torts each have their own short frameworks, so the subject rewards a candidate who can identify which framework the facts call for before analysing anything.

• Negligence answers must address every element; skipping causation is the most common essay failure.
• Proximate cause questions turn on foreseeability and intervening causes.
• Products liability requires identifying the theory: manufacturing defect, design defect, or failure to warn.
• Defamation and privacy torts have element lists that must be memorised separately from negligence.

• Write the five negligence elements at the top of every practice essay before analysing the facts.
• Group the intentional torts by their defences, since defences are how the exam distinguishes them.
• Treat products liability as a separate topic with its own practice set.

183 pages across 20 chapters, organised in the order the law applies:

• Intentional torts and their defenses
• IIED and NIED
• Duty, standard of care, and negligence per se
• Breach, res ipsa loquitur, and custom evidence
• Actual and proximate causation
• Damages, comparative fault, assumption of risk
• Vicarious and joint liability; contribution
• Products liability, defamation, and privacy torts

• Civil Procedure
• Constitutional Law
• Contracts and Sales (UCC Article 2)
• Criminal Law and Procedure
• Evidence
• Real Property
• Business Associations
• Multistate Performance Test (MPT)
• Professional Responsibility (MPRE)