Who gets assigned Torts?
Torts is an elective NCA subject — assignment is based on your individual assessment, not your nationality. The NCA reviews whether your prior legal education included sufficient coverage of Canadian common law tort principles. Candidates from civil law or mixed legal systems are more likely to be assigned Torts, as their home systems may not have a developed negligence doctrine equivalent to Canadian common law.
Core Torts framework
The NCA Torts exam centres on the law of negligence. The core analytical framework is:
- Duty of care — does the defendant owe the claimant a duty?
- Breach — did the defendant fall below the standard of a reasonable person?
- Causation — did the breach cause the damage (but-for test)?
- Damage — was there actual loss (remoteness)?
Beyond the basic negligence framework, the exam also covers occupiers' liability and defamation basics.
The foundational case establishing the neighbour principle — you owe a duty of care to persons who are so closely and directly affected by your acts that you ought reasonably to have them in contemplation when directing your mind to the acts or omissions in question.
The two-stage test for novel duty of care situations in Canada. Stage 1: Is there sufficient proximity and reasonable foreseeability of harm? Stage 2: Are there policy reasons to negate or limit the duty? This test is essential for any novel duty situation on the exam.
Exam strategy
The NCA Torts exam is a 3-hour open-book written exam. Focus on:
- Applying the duty-breach-causation-damage framework methodically to every negligence question
- Identifying when Anns/Cooper applies (novel duty situations) vs. established duty categories
- Knowing the Donoghue neighbour principle as the foundational authority
- Practicing timed fact-pattern answers — the exam rewards structured analysis over lengthy prose
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Frequently Asked Questions
Is Torts assigned to all NCA candidates?
No. Torts is an elective subject. Assignment depends on your individual degree assessment.
What is the Anns/Cooper test?
The Anns/Cooper test is the Canadian framework for determining novel duty of care situations. Stage 1: Is there a sufficiently close relationship (proximity) and was harm reasonably foreseeable? Stage 2: Are there policy reasons to negate or limit that duty? Established in Cooper v Hobart [2001] SCC 79.
How difficult is NCA Torts compared to other subjects?
Torts is considered moderate difficulty. The conceptual framework (duty, breach, causation, damage) is clear, but the exam tests nuanced application to fact patterns, particularly for novel duty situations under Anns/Cooper.