What is it really like to be a lawyer? With my Law School for Teens courses, you can get a look at law school topics at a high school level. 

Most people think that being a lawyer is about arguing - it’s not. An excellent lawyer is an excellent problem solver.

And that’s what you learn in these courses - how to think like a lawyer. My Basics of Law class is one of the best ways to begin to think like a lawyer. We look at intentional torts, which helps students become precise in their thinking, and then we look at negligence, which helps students learn to think through all of the circumstances of any given situation.

I really like this class for what it can give to the students in the realm of beginning to think clearly. Let's look at some of the specifics:

A Tort is an act or omission that gives rise to injury or harm to another and amounts to a civil (opposite of a criminal) wrong for which the courts impose liability.

Negligence is a situation where we need to think through if the defendant (person accused of the tort) has a legal obligation (a duty) towards the plaintiff (the person suing), if the breached that duty, if that breach caused the harm, and then if that harm has damages the court can redress. The focused logic of having to defend your argument either for or against negligence is a powerful way to improve a student's thinking.

We will learn what that definition means, and how it is applied in law. We will follow the general outline of what law school students would do in an actual law school course, just paced for teenagers.

Torts are what you hear about in the news when people sue companies or other people for large amounts of money. In this course, we’ll begin looking at the basics of Tort law to help you understand this interesting area of law.

Here is the general schedule of Torts (Part 1), which is always subject to change based on the pacing of the class (outlines will be dropped before each class for students to follow along with):

Class 1: Introduction to Torts
What is a Tort?
- Why do we have Tort Law?
- What is the court process for Tort Law?

Class 2: Battery
- What is a Battery?
- Fact Patterns about Battery

Class 3: Assault
- What is an Assault?
- Fact Patterns about Assault

Class 4: False Imprisonment
- What is False Imprisonment?
- Fact Patterns about False Imprisonment

Class 5: Trespass to Land and Chattels
- What is Trespass to Land and Chattels?
- Fact Patterns about Trespass to Land and Chattels

Class 6: Conversion
- What is Conversion?
- Fact Patterns about Conversion

Class 7: Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress
- What is Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress?
- Fact Patterns about Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress

Class 8: Practice Problems
- Apply our knowledge of intentional torts to practice problems

Class 8: Negligence - Duty, Part 1
- What is Negligence?
- Fact Patterns about Negligence

Class 10: Negligence - Duty, Part 2
- What is Negligence?
- Fact Patterns about Negligence

Class 11: Negligence - Breach, Part 1
- What is Negligence?
- Fact Patterns about Negligence

- Class 12:  Negligence - Breach, Part 2
- What is Negligence?
- Fact Patterns about Negligence

Class 13:  Negligence - Causation
- What is Negligence?
- Fact Patterns about Negligence

Class 14: Negligence - Damages
- What is Negligence?
- Fact Patterns about Negligence

Class 15: Practice Problems
- Apply our knowledge of Negligence to practice problems

Class 16: Practice Problems
- Complex practice problems that apply all of our knowledge on torts

I look forward to seeing you in class!