Spring 2027

Torts

Introduction to torts, covering civil wrongs independent of contract, liability for physical/emotional harms via intent/negligence/no-fault, and analysis techniques.

offering recorded4 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Pilar Ossorio3.2/5Amanda WhiteEagleMegan Mcdermott

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Pilar Ossorio

The exam was considered fair based on the material covered in class. Cancellations without make-up sessions made it difficult to get through important units.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Demonstrate knowledge of some policies underlying Tort law

  • Demonstrate knowledge of how the common law develops

  • Demonstrate knowledge of how common law differs from statutory or regulatory law

  • Demonstrate proficiency in extracting legal rules and rationales from cases and applying those rules to new fact patterns

  • Demonstrate proficiency and good judgment in analyzing and interpreting cases

  • Improve discussion skills, including listening, turn-taking, learning through interaction, orally presenting reasons and drawing conclusions based on reason

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

Declared in Law JD

  • Declared in Law JD
LAW 715

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree
  • Declared in Law JD

Professors

Spring 2027
Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 1.83/5 from 6 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

For this course: 1.3/5 raw quality · 3.3/5 difficulty · 4 reviews

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

Past student reviews · Pilar Ossorio

Students reported that Pilar Ossorio struggled to present torts material with clarity and often went on tangents unrelated to the course. She cancelled class multiple times without offering make-up sessions, which hindered coverage of important units. While one student found her office hours helpful and the exam fair, others described her as disorganized and a poor communicator.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2023: 3.21 GPA, 38.5% A/AB (n=39 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.30 GPA, 40.0% A/AB (n=20 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.37 GPA, 42.9% A/AB (n=35 letter grades).

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 3.31 GPA, 47.6% A/AB (n=42 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.28 GPA, 50.0% A/AB (n=18 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.42 GPA, 47.4% A/AB (n=19 letter grades).

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

Past student reviews · Robin Charo

Historical instructor Robin Charo was described as enthusiastic and intelligent, with office hours that were wonderful to visit. The student noted that the final exam was exactly what they expected after a semester of her lectures, indicating alignment between teaching and assessment. Charo was called one of the best faculty in the law school, and the course was rated as difficult.

MEGAN MCDERMOTT is recorded teaching in Spring 2019, Spring 2020, Spring 2022, Spring 2023, Spring 2024, Spring 2025, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

PILAR OSSORIO is recorded teaching in Fall 2007, Fall 2008, Fall 2009, Fall 2010, Fall 2012, Spring 2016, Spring 2017, Spring 2018, Spring 2020, Spring 2022, Spring 2023, Spring 2025, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

ROBIN CHARO is recorded teaching in Fall 2008, Fall 2011, Fall 2012, Spring 2014, Spring 2015, Spring 2016, Spring 2018, Spring 2019. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 700
LEC 002Classroom Instruction0 / 700
LEC 003Classroom Instruction0 / 700

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Pilar Ossorio

Students described lectures as dull, unfocused rambles that often launched into incoherent tangents. They noted the course used a textbook that added to the confusion.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 3.30 GPA, 41.4% A/AB (n=70 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.27 GPA, 34.8% A/AB (n=89 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.41 GPA, 44.8% A/AB (n=96 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Pilar Ossorio

The exam was considered fair based on the material covered in class. Cancellations without make-up sessions made it difficult to get through important units.

Past student reviews · Pilar Ossorio

One student found Pilar Ossorio kind but ineffective at teaching torts, noting they learned most by studying with classmates. They recommended attending office hours for better support.

Topics

  • Liability for physical and emotional harms
  • Intentional misconduct, negligence, and no-fault liability
  • Development of common law
  • Distinction between common law and statutory/regulatory law

Skills

  • Extracting legal rules and rationales from cases and applying them to new fact patterns
  • Analyzing and interpreting cases with good judgment
  • Developing concepts and techniques for analyzing and solving tort problems

Grades

Historical instructor

Spring 2027 · Projected

Before grades are released

– average GPA

Approximate 80% prediction interval

About this estimate

The course’s semester-average GPA, not an individual student’s grade. The center uses 5 same-season terms, weighted toward recent results.

The range uses the finite-sample 80th-percentile rank of absolute errors from earlier same-season forecasts. Each forecast uses only records from earlier terms. At least four forecasts are required; bounds are rounded outward and limited to 0–4. This is an empirical estimate: changing instructors or grading policies can reduce its coverage.

8 earlier forecasts · 0.09 GPA average error.

Grades over time

Through Spring 2027

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2026 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1280 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

Download part 1
Selected offering source records
LAW 715 · Spring 2027

Torts

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:528:010972",
    "course_id": "LAW 715",
    "course_uid": "course_7342cad8fcf2636758958ec8",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "010972",
    "source_subject_id": "528",
    "title": "Torts",
    "credits_min": 4,
    "credits_max": 4,
    "typically_offered": "Fall"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
Download part 1
Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "fabe647735ae5e47ecac14ca7778e53a9311d2d80bb38c708a0ff674cf601744",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}