Torts: My History

So tonight is my torts exam. I am in the library right now trying to figure out how I can cram more torts into my brain as my day time colleges are sitting down to a test, which from what I can gather, may actually come to life and murder a few 1Ls. While they are all fearing for their futures, I am contemplating my past.

Torts was a class that I had a love hate relationship with. From my very first law school faux paux of getting a hypo wrong to last night where I confidently explained theories of alternative liability, I was on the torts roller coaster.

I started confident, then quickly lost it. The feeling that I was that girl was overwhelming. At one point I was reduced to tears and resolved to never speak in class again. I went for a while with that idea. Almost a month, I was silent in class. At first, I was so nervous that I couldn't raise my hand, as if my nerves decided that the muscle won't work. Then after a while, I started to understand what my professor was asking. That is a tricky thing, because it is a task that requires a student to really get into the prof's head and think like them. Almost like some serious Vulcan mind melding.

I was still resolute in not answering anything. To stop myself, I started wearing a rubber band around my wrist. I snapped it every time I wanted to raise my hand. Turns out, I was more ambitious than I thought I was. Dear God, my wrist hurt. Finally, I couldn't handle it anymore. My wrist was red, swollen, and I was afraid I would snap a tendon in my wrist. More importantly though, I knew I knew the answer. I knew that I could make the strongest argument and just nail it (it also helps that the week before I had a major confidence boost by being on call in contracts for an hour and nailing the questions my professor threw at me.)

Medical malpractice standards: what are the arguments against the average practitioner standard? I nailed that answer. I used my professor's words to tell him exactly what he was thinking, and the look on his face was priceless. He looked at me in my dead-center-off-the-room seat, smiled and said "Exactly!"**

From that point, it wasn't exactly an easy road, but it got significantly better. I finally started to understand why things were the way they were. I actually started to understand torts.

So that brings me here, at my table of knowledge (a term I stole from an undergrad friend) in the library six hours before my exam. I am reading my outline one last time. How do I feel? The same what I always feel before an exam, nervous as hell. Still, the fact that I made it to this point, is a victory.

So here I go, into the depths of a torts exam. Hopefully I will see you on the other side.


**BTW, I intentionally left out my answer for the arguments against the average practitioner standard. I don't want to ruin the fun of figuring it out.