If you are hit by a car and have to stay in the hospital for a long period of time, who pays your medical bills? How do you make up for lost time at work? 

What happens if you are using a product that damages you in some way, preventing you from living your life to the fullest? Who is responsible and how do you recover financial damages?

Or what happens if a doctor is negligent (makes a mistake) during a surgery? How does the patient get compensated?

This is an area of law called Torts - and it is an old and ancient area of law, found as far back as 2100 B.C. This is a foundational class in most law schools around the nation, and this class is meant to be an introduction to the topic at a high school level.

We will learn about how liability (responsibility) for wrong actions are transferred to the wrongdoers through the authority of the courts. Torts is a topic seen on most Bar Exams (the test to earn your license as a lawyer).

I am a practicing attorney and a high school teacher, and I am taking the law school class of Torts and translating it to a high school level to expose students to the thinking you might use in a law school and a courtroom. This isn't a replacement for law school, but it is a great exposure to the types of topics you might experience there.

Each class will start out with a brief talk about the topic of the day, and then we will use fact patterns (story problems in law) to apply our new-found knowledge. This method creates discussion and questions between students, and it makes for a fun and interesting class. I’ve used this method for over ten years in my live high school classes as well as on Outschool, and I find it very effective for improving the thinking of students as they work through the fact patterns.

I will provide an outline that we will use for each class, usually dropped in the Outschool classroom the day before in case the learner wants to read it over. You may print out the outline or have it up on your screen as we go through it in class.

Students will have no need of prior knowledge of law before taking this class, and students will be able to jump in at any time during this Ongoing class and still feel comfortable understanding the material.

The schedule (always subject to change) will be as listed here:

Summer 2023 Schedule:

Week of June 4 - June 10: Battery
Week of June 11 - June 17: Assault
Week of June 18 - June 25: False Imprisonment
Week of June 26 - July 1: Trespass to Land and Chattels
Week of July 2 - July 8: Conversion
Week of July 9 - July 15: Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress
Week of July 16 - July 22: Negligent Infliction of Emotional Distress
Week of July 23 - July 29: Negligence - Duty
Week of July 30 - August 5: Negligence - Duty (Part 2)

Fall 2023 Schedule:

Let me know if you have any questions! I look forward to seeing you in class.