Bye, Bye, Torts; Hello Contracts

Torts exam is history. Thank goodness. It wasn't so bad; 6 single-spaced pages of a fact pattern revolving around the mishaps of two rich California heiresses spending a month on a back-country farm for a "reality television" program (a.k.a. "The Simple Life"). Yay. The exam was divided into four parts. First, one of the girls got into a "scuffle" with her host mother, who then locked her in her room for the night without dinner. Assault? Battery? False Imprisonment?

Second, one of the girls brought her pet dog, who was carried off by her host farmer's dog, who turned out to have rabies. The dog bit the girl. Possible issues of negligence on the part of several people (including, potentially, the cameraman who was witnessing everything, but case against him probably weak).

Third, the girls made a bet with each other to see if they could get the two brothers in their host family to fight over them. Possible IIED? The boys did fight. Possible intentional torts? Other issues were embedded in here as well.

Finally, the girls went out one night and bought alcohol—negligence per se on the part of the store that sold the beer because there was a statute forbidding such sale to minors. The girls then went drinking and driving (negligence?), had to swerve to avoid a rock that had fallen in the road because of a coal mine's recent blasting activities (strict liability for ultra-hazardous activities?), swerved again to avoid hitting a deer (hooray for intervening causes to make causation simply impossible!), and ended up running off the road and straight into someone's living room.

There were lots of other issues in there, and I'm sure I missed many and analyzed others poorly, but the important thing is, it's over. It's also curved, so how poorly could I have done? Nearly 9 pages of typing in 3 hours, 3,900 words (Extregity is so abysmal, but at least it has a word and page counter), and it's over. Over. Bye, bye Torts! I will not miss you.

Now, on to Contracts, tomorrow at 2 p.m. Offer? Acceptance? Status to contract? Fraud, misrepresentation, duress? Is a writing required? Would restitution be appropriate? Ugh.

But you know, it's actually great to finally be taking exams. It's like a relief. People have been warning me for about a year about how hard the first year of law school is, about how the exams are so horrible. And no, they're not really fun (although, if you knew you weren't being graded, you might be able to enjoy the sort of adventure sleuthing aspect of picking up clues to spot issues and the remedies/arguments your professor has embedded in the facts), but none of it's really that bad. I will live, and I'll live a lot better when these silly rituals are over. I've been spending time longing for a paper to write instead of exams to study for because I'm better at thinking more slowly and in depth than I am at memorizing and spilling my brains out on a tight schedule, but the great thing advantage exams have over papers is this: If you just wait long enough, exams will be over. And that's true. Regardless of what I do for the next week, by noon on Thursday, December 18th, I'll be finished with the first semester of law school, and I have to say that will be a wonderful thing.

Meanwhile, I guess I'll study a little...

Posted December 10, 2003 09:48 AM | law school