UNIT 4 - LAW UNIT

Civil Law - 

Courts under Civil Law - (I'm assuming types of law??) – ask someone for clarification! 

  • Tort 

  • Contract 

  • Family 

  • Wills + Estates 

  • Property 

  • Employment 


Types of civil remedies - 

  • Motor vehicle liability insurance – 

  • Pecuniary - 

  • Injunctions - 

  • Punitive Damages - 

  • Workers Compensation - 

  • Nominal Damages - 

  • Non-pecuniary - 

  • Garnishment - 

  • Special damages -

  • Specific Performance - 

  • Aggravated Damages 

  • No-fault insurance - 

  • Execution or Seizure - 



Types of alternative Dispute resolutions 

Negotiation 

  • Agree to a mutually agreed upon arrangement 

Mediation 

  • Third party intervenes to bring opposing parties to an agreement 

Arbitration 

  • Third party hears both sides and makes a binding decision 

Tort Law  -

Types of Intentional torts 

Assault

  • Offensive conduct that causes a reasonable apprehension of imminent harm 

Battery 

  • Intentional, unauthorized, physical contact that the victim considered harmful


Sexual assault 

  • Sought by survivors of sexual assault, spousal abuse, or incest - some seek financial compensation while others want public exposure 


Medical Battery 

  • Performing the wrong medical procedure without the patient's consent 


False imprisonment 

  • Detention of a person without consent or reasonable grounds of abuse of power 


Nervous shock 

  • Deliberately shocking someone, causing the victim to suffer mental or physical harm 


Invasion of privacy 

  • People's concerns about legal protection of their personal/privacy 


Defamation 

  • Saying untrue things that might negatively harm someone’s reputation or character 



Three factors needed to prove negligence (three stage) 

  1. Duty of Care 

  • Obligation to foresee and avoid careless actions that might cause harm to others such as the neighbour principle 

  • Foreseeability: being aware that your actions could cause injury to someone 


  1. Standard of Care 

  • The degree of caution or level of conduct expected of a reasonable person of average intelligence

  • People with special skills (doctors/engineers) have a higher standard of care called (specialized standard of care) 

 → Medical Negligence: duty to explain the medical care

 → Parental responsibilities: provide the necessities of life 


  1. Causation 

  • DEF: actions of the defendant actually caused the plaintiff’s injuries 

  • Cause in Fact/cause and effect: connection between one person’s actions and another person’s injuries determined by the “but for” test – and injury would not have happened but for 

  • Apportionment: the division of fault among different wrongdoers 



Types of Liabilities: 

  • Product Liability: The area of the law that deals with negligence on the part of manufacturers 

  • Occupiers Liability: The responsibility of owners or renters to ensure that no one entering premises is injured 

  • Allurement: site or object that might attract children or people 

  • Strict Libality: defendant is automatically liable for an injury caused by a dangerous susbtance or activity even if the defendant was not negligent 


Defenses to Liabilities: 

  • Contributory negligence: negligent acts by the plantiff that helped cause the plaintiff’s injuries 

  • Voluntary assumption: the defense that no liability exists because the plaintiff agreed to accept the risk normally associated with the activity 

  • Waiver: signed by the defendant releasing the defendant from liability in the vent of an injury 

  • Inevitable accident: defense claims the accident was unavoidable due to an uncontrolled event 

  • Act of god: caused by an extraordinary, unexpected natural event 

  • Explanation: accident occurred for valid reason even though the defendant took every precaution 

  • Statute of limitations: law that specifies the time which legal actions must be taken 


Marriage and Family Law- 

Essential requirements to marriage 

  • Mental Capacity to Marriage: ability to understand the contract of marriage + mental capacity must exist at the time the marriage took place 

  • Freedom of Consent: agree to enter willingly and not forced to

  • Age of consent: in Ontario over 18 to be married, can be 16 if parents agree 


Absence of prohibited relationships: 

  • Consanguinity cannot marry too closely related to each other by blood 


Prior Marriages: 

  • Polygamy and bigamy is a criminal offense in Canada (up to 5 years) 


Sexual Capacity: 

  • Consummation of the marriage physically 


Essential requirements to marriage 

  1. Marriage Licence or Publication of Banns 

  • Marriage license legal document authorizing marriages 

  • Publications of Banns: proclaimed at religious services by the church announcing the intention of marriage 

  1. Marriage Ceremonies: 

  • Must be witnessed by 2 people over 18 years old 

  • Must be conducted by someone authorized to do so 

  • Must be pronounced that the couple is married 


Contracts- 

Types of Contracts: 

  • Bilateral: promise exchanged for another promise (exchanged both ways) 

  • Unilateral: promise made by single party in exchange for an action 

  • Oral and written: apply based on the situation, handshake agreement can be considered an oral contract 

  • Implied: parties mutually understand the terms by their actions and not words 


Essential elements of a contract: 

Intention to contract: 

  • Parties intended to sign (presumptions) 

  • Family relationships → not all promises are legally binding 

  • Commercial relationship → their bargains are legally binding 


Offer and acceptance: 

  • Parties invited and then it is accepted 

  • Offers can expire after a reasonable period even if a date has not been mentioned 


Consideration: 

  • When something is promised

  • Person who makes the promise must get benefit from the promise 

  • Person who agrees to the promise must experience some detriment/loss


Certainty of terms 

  • Clear terms

  • Must be certain so the courts can interpret it correctly