Your job at the end of this semester will be very similar to what your job as lawyers will be in a few years. If you represent an injured person, your job will be to determine whether your client can recover compensatory damages. If the tortfeasor cannot accomplish that, he or she is required to economically compensate the injured person. In order to obtain compensation for an injured plaintiff, a lawyer has to be able to demonstrate to a neutral decision-maker that the plaintiff is entitled to such compensation. Of course, from the standpoint of the defendant's lawyer, her or his job is to prevent or reduce the amount of compensation the plaintiff receives.
Lets begin our analysis with the plaintiff's job.
To establish a prima facie case, a plaintiff must prove the elements of the particular cause of action. To find out the elements of a cause of action, Roman lawyers looked to the Corpus Juris Civilis , the Justinian Code , or the Lex Aquilia . To establish a prima facie case today, a plaintiff must prove the elements of the particular cause of action. To find the elements, today's lawyers must look to a statute or to case-law precedent addressing that particular cause of action. Sometimes it will not be difficult to ascertain the elements from a statute or court decision.