Merge element type errors? (title + hard-coded field)
You can pass the element off to ContentService::validateContent() in the event that it doesn't pass the record’s validation, just to get those  errors mixed into the element as well.

if (!$record-&gt;validate())
{
    // Copy the record's errors over to the element model
    $element-&gt;addErrors($record-&gt;getErrors());

    // Might as well validate the content as well,
    // so we get a complete list of validation errors
    if (!craft()-&gt;content-&gt;validateContent($element))
    {
        // Copy the content model's errors over to the element model
        $element-&gt;addErrors($element-&gt;getContent()-&gt;getErrors());
    }

    return false;
}