Transcript Coaching Presentation Slides

Acme Electronics:
Student Coaching Slides
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Question 1:
Negligence
• Define
• Prima Facie Case – Plaintiff’s Burden
• Defenses – Defendant’s Burden
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Prima Facie Case
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Conduct
Duty
Breach of Duty
Actual (direct) Cause
Proximate (legal) Cause
Damage
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Conduct
What Did Acme Do or Fail to Do
in This Case?
• Affirmative Action
• Omission – Failure to Act
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Duty
The Concept of Duty Has Two Parts:
• What is the Duty?
– Standard of Care:
• To Act as a Reasonable Person
• Can a Statute set the Standard of Care? (Library Case)
• To Whom is the Duty Owed?
– Foreseeable Plaintiff – Defendant Owes a Duty to
Plaintiffs Who the Defendant can Foresee Will be
Injured as a Result of the Defendant’s Conduct.
– Can a Statute Identify the Person or Persons to Whom
the Defendant Owes a Duty? (Library Case)
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Breach of Duty
• Calculus of the Risk
1) Likelihood of Harm
2) Seriousness of Harm
vs.
3) Cost of Prevention and/or
4) Utility of the Activity
• Violation of a Statute
Is the Violation of a Statute Considered to be a
Breach of Duty? (Library Case)
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Negligence Per Se
• Define
• Relation to the Prima Facie Case of
Negligence
– Any Light Shed on This by Library
Case(s)?
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Actual Causation
• Plaintiff Must Connect Conduct to the Loss
– “But for” Defendant’s Conduct Plaintiff
Would not Have Suffered the Loss.
• Easy, Difficult, or Impossible Burden in this Case?
Why or Why Not?
• Any Solution to the Dilemma? (Library Case)
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Proximate (Legal)
Causation
• Policy Determination
– Should Defendant Really be Responsible
for Damages Actually Caused?
– Natural and Probable Consequences
– Did Plaintiff’s Loss Come About as a
Result of a String of Weird Unforeseeable
Events?
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Damages
• Damages Suffered in this Case
– Compensatory
• Define/Purpose
– Out of Pocket?
– Cost to Reconstruct Lost Files?
– Punitive Damages?
• Define/Purpose
• Intentional Tort vs. Negligence
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Question 2:
Defenses
• Contributory Negligence
– Complete Bar to Recovery
• Library?
• Comparative Negligence
– Pure vs. Mixed
• Library?
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Question 3: Sample of
600 Past Negligence Cases
• Use Normal Approximation to Binomial
Distribution
• Check Statistics Texts for Formulas
• Confidence Interval – Confidence is
Probability True Percent is Contained
in Interval
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Question 4:
Expected Value
• Assume No Punitive Award
• Review of Expected Value:
– Weighted Average of a Set of Values Where the
Weights are the Probabilities of Values
– Sum of Probabilities is One, Since All Possible Events
Should be Considered
– If All the Values are Costs, Expected Value Can be
Called Expected Cost
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Question 5
• The Expected Value Could be Used as
the Basis for a Settlement
• Ethical Issues?
• Strategy?
• Question Open Ended
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