Torts

MC Law · Professor Monteiro · Fall 2026

Welcome to Torts! This website is the online version of the course syllabus.

Meetings

Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 1:15–2:30 p.m

Location

Room 251

Teaching assistants

Anna Kathryn Charbonnet · Braden Ryder · Michael Day · Michael Ostbloom · Shamaria Brooks

Office hours

I am usually available to meet you all days of the week, either in my office or on Zoom. My office is in Room 414. See current schedule here. You can make an appointment, but don’t need one.

Course Description

General principles of civil liability for breach of duty created by law, including: intentional interference with person and property and privileges thereof; negligence and the defenses thereof; damages, wrongful death and survival, imputed negligence, strict liability, products liability, nuisance, misrepresentation, defamation, privacy, misuse of legal procedure, interference with advantageous relationships and major statutory modifications (no-fault insurance). Extracted from the Academic Catalog.

Programmatic Learning Outcomes

The learning objectives of this course are tied to the following MC Law Learning Outcomes:

  1. Graduates will demonstrate an understanding and fundamental knowledge of the basic rules, theoretical foundations, and principles of substantive and procedural law.
  2. Graduates will demonstrate effective analytical and problem-solving skills.
  3. Graduates will effectively communicate their legal reasoning both in writing and orally.
  4. Graduates will demonstrate knowledge and understanding of a lawyer’s moral, ethical, and professional responsibilities to clients, the profession, and the community.

Course Goals and Learning Outcomes

By the end of the semester, you should be able to:

  1. Explain the elements of a reported opinion: procedural facts, legally relevant facts, issue(s), holding(s), reasons and policies, legal rules, and disposition.
  2. Identify the claims and defenses of major intentional, negligent, and other tort claims.
  3. Analyze torts cases, statutes, and secondary sources.
  4. Apply tort claims, defenses, and policies to simple and complex fact patterns.
  5. Distinguish which facts are relevant and which additional facts are needed to establish a torts claim or defense.
  6. Make logical inferences about facts relevant to specific torts.
  7. Distinguish which tort issues and elements are decided by judges and which by juries (or judges sitting as fact finders).
  8. Write clearly about torts analysis in an organized way, using evidence and following requested formats.
  9. Examine torts arguments and predictions to identify counterarguments and weaknesses.
  10. Participate professionally in class, including collaborating effectively with classmates.
  11. Engage in thoughtful reflection and self-assessment.

(Extracted from Michael Hunter Schwartz et al., Teaching Law by Design (3d ed. 2026).)

Course materials

The abbreviations introduced here are used throughout the schedule. They are generated from the same declarations used by the PDF syllabus.

  • Ward Farnsworth & Mark F. Grady, Torts: Cases and Questions (3d ed. 2019) (hereinafter “CB”).

  • Kenneth S. Abraham, The Forms and Functions of Tort Law (6th ed. 2022) (hereinafter “FF”).

    Digital access is available through the library’s West Academic Study Aids subscription.

Additional materials will be linked from the schedule or posted through the course’s ordinary distribution channel.

Assessment and Grading

  • Professional engagement: 15%. You will be assessed on your classroom preparation and participation, completion of ungraded assignments, and adherence to other professional expectations applicable to aspiring members of the legal profession. High standards will set the bar, but I recognize that we are human; perfection will not be required for full credit on professional engagement. Refer to the next section.
  • Midterm examination: 10%. A closed-book midterm will include an essay problem and multiple-choice questions. The midterm will take roughly one class period and will be subject to a word-count limit.
  • Final examination: 75%. A closed-book final examination will include essay and multiple-choice questions. The final will take roughly two hours and will also be subject to a word-count limit.

This course is subject to the Mandatory Class Average for First Year Required Doctrinal Courses policy, according to which “the grade point average . . . shall be between 2.50 and 2.7999.”

You will be provided with a grade estimate after one or more ungraded practice essays. These estimates should provide transparency and help you understand how you will be graded. As the midterm and final approach, you will receive more information about grading.

Professional Engagement

Preparation

Complete assignments (readings and exercises) before class and come prepared to discuss them.

Preparation means fully engaging with the materials. The casebook’s Notes include guiding questions. You should apply yourself to answering these questions. I encourage you to do so in writing and to brief the cases. I recommend this CALI resource on preparing for class, briefing cases, and developing your outline.

The law is a practice, and you learn it by practicing. There is not enough time to practice in class, and some practice requires focused reading and analysis that cannot happen in class. Per ABA Standard 310(b)(1), each credit hour requires “not less than one hour of classroom or direct faculty instruction and two hours of out-of-class student work per week for fifteen weeks, or the equivalent amount of work over a different amount of time.” For this four-credit course, this means at least eight hours of out-of-class preparation per week.

Classroom Participation

In-class participation is vital in part because oral prowess is a crucial lawyerly competence. You must practice it. It is not enough to hear others (your classmates and me) do it. This is much like mastering a language: it is not enough to listen to it being spoken; you must speak the language yourself. All students are always welcome to participate. I will make sure that all voices are heard in class.

I also understand that speaking up in class can be intimidating and stressful. The course is structured to mitigate those impediments to participation through a mix of strategies.

  • For cold calling, a panel of students will be “on deck”—that is, designated to answer case questions that day. You will be “on deck” for roughly 20% of classes with an on-deck panel. You may sign in as unprepared once during the semester if you are not ready to be on deck that day. The schedule identifies the panel assigned for each class by number. A Canvas page lists the members of each panel.
  • “Room temperature” calling: Other classroom discussion may follow warm-up activities, during which you will have time to write an answer to a question or discuss it in pairs or groups before joining a whole-class conversation. All students—not just those on deck—are then expected to engage with questions.

Professional engagement in class also refers to in-classroom activities, including the practice essays. Such activities, graded only for completion, must be taken seriously. A lack of commitment will result in a deduction.

Scribes

In most sessions, three students will be designated as scribes. Scribes will be allowed to use devices in the classroom to take notes. The notes will then be shared with the whole class. Scribes must upload their notes by 1:00 p.m. on the day following class. Each student will serve as a scribe twice. A table showing each student’s assigned dates is available on Canvas.

Responding to Disagreement

Professional engagement in class does not mean only answering questions I pose, but also listening respectfully and attentively to all members of the class and responding thoughtfully. Tort cases can elicit fundamental disagreements between different people. When faced with disagreement of this kind, you will often learn more with a stance of openness and curiosity about other perspectives, rather than digging in your heels.

Your education will prepare you to work through disagreements professionally and productively. This applies with force in matters of social controversy or political polarization. In this course, we will not adjudicate those matters, but neither will we shy away from them when the discussion is appropriate given the doctrine or case at hand. If such a situation arises, we will always seek to ground arguments and counterarguments and test them against the structure of tort law. I may therefore ask you to consider these issues from the perspective of the coherence and integrity of doctrine. This does not mean that broader social and political disagreements are unimportant or must be subordinated to legal doctrine. It means only that, in this course, we will approach them in ways that illuminate tort law and support learning.

Professional Conduct

Members of the legal profession are expected to behave with civility and decorum. This standard also applies to this course, in and out of class, to students, teaching assistants, law school personnel, me as your instructor, and any guest speakers or lecturers. Note that this goes both ways: I also owe you civility and respect, and so do the teaching assistants. You will not be policed for slips and missteps, in your use of language or otherwise. But you should be mindful. Professional conduct is not about never making mistakes, but about recognizing one and apologizing for it.

Syllabus Revisions and Student Feedback

Dates, activities, and assignments may be revised as the course progresses. I will announce material revisions in class and through Canvas. The website schedule will be updated to reflect the current assignment. Some flexibility will allow us to spend more time on difficult material and respond to the pace of the course.

Likewise, because I want to be able to respond and do what is best for you, course design may be changed. I welcome thoughtful feedback about what is and is not working, and I may adjust the course in response to your needs and our progress. Feedback is most useful when it is respectful, specific, and constructive. I will listen carefully while continuing to exercise my professional judgment as your teacher.

Acknowledgements

This syllabus and course draw on colleagues’ syllabi, teaching materials, and conversations. I am grateful to Claudia Haupt, on whose generosity I relied heavily for course design, text selection, and assignments. I am also indebted to Asaf Lubin for his generous advice and materials shared. I owe thanks to James Grimmelmann, Mary Purvis, Frank Rosenblatt, and Jon Will for much needed advice on legal pedagogy. Lastly, my appreciation to Howard E. Katz and Michael Hunter Schwartz.