Unit 14 of Law of Torts, Motor Accident Claims and Consumer Protection (syllabus: Trespass to the Person). Below: what the unit covers, the provisions it turns on, and the cases an examiner expects you to name.
What this unit covers
- When is a threat an assault, and when does the touching become a battery?
- What must be proved for false imprisonment?
- Malicious prosecution: five essentials, every one of them on the plaintiff
- Harm inflicted intentionally through words: the rule in Wilkinson v Downton
Treat that list as a self-test: recite each topic's rule from memory before you open its cases.
Leading cases
- Stephens v Myers (1830)
- Bird v Jones (1845)
- Hicks v Faulkner (1878) 8 QBD 167
- Wilkinson v Downton [1897] 2 QB 57