Torts
Nail negligence problem questions.
Negligence follows a set sequence: duty, breach, causation, damage and defences. Strong answers establish each element on the facts in order. The guides make that sequence routine.
The challenge
Where students get stuck
Students lose marks when they argue liability generally rather than element by element. The analysis begins with the duty of care, including the established categories and the approach to novel duties, then breach and the calculus of negligence under the Wrongs Act, then causation, covering factual causation and the scope of liability, and then damage. Each element must be established on the facts. The defences, including contributory negligence and voluntary assumption of risk, and the question of remoteness, add further steps that students sometimes overlook.
How the method applies here
The negligence sequence runs in order. For each element, state the rule with its authority, including the Wrongs Act 1958 where it applies, apply it to the facts, then move on. The defences are taken in turn.
The method
One method, every problem
Four steps run every argument: name the issue, state the rule, apply it to the facts, conclude. Almost every legal rule takes one of six shapes. Any of these six shapes may carry a twist. Learn the six shapes and the twist →
Common questions
Torts: common questions
Will this cover negligence and the other torts?
Yes. Negligence in full and the other torts on your syllabus, plus the Wrongs Act.
My answers assert liability without proving it. What fixes that?
Proving each element on the facts instead of concluding early.
Related subjects: Contracts, Remedies, Criminal Law & Procedure. See all subjects.
Nail negligence.
I am building the guides and worked problems for this subject and will announce them in the Publication as they land.