Victorian Bar Entrance Exam cheat sheet

Australian court hierarchy: High Court at the apex; below it State Supreme Courts, District/County Courts, and Magistrates/Local Courts; the Federal Court and Federal Circuit Court hear Commonwealth matters.

Doctrine of precedent: a superior court's ratio decidendi binds lower courts in the same hierarchy; obiter dicta is persuasive only.

Civil standard of proof is the balance of probabilities; criminal standard is beyond reasonable doubt, with the Briginshaw principle applying to serious civil allegations.

Ratio decidendi is the legal principle necessary to the decision; distinguishing a case requires a material difference in facts, not mere disagreement.

Statutory interpretation begins with the ordinary meaning of text in context and purpose (Acts Interpretation Act provisions), with extrinsic material available only where ambiguity or absurdity arises.

Criminal liability elements: actus reus (conduct, circumstances, consequences) plus mens rea (intention, knowledge, recklessness, negligence), with temporal coincidence required.

Burden of proof in criminal trials rests on the prosecution; the defence bears an evidential burden only for most defences such as self-defence.

Contract formation requires offer, acceptance, consideration, intention to create legal relations, and capacity; consideration must move from the promisee but need not be adequate.

Identify the proposition the question asks about before reading options; eliminate options that answer a different question even if factually true.

Distinguish ratio from obiter in a passage: ratio is the reasoning necessary to the outcome; obiter is commentary that did not determine the result.

Watch for scope qualifiers (all, some, may, must, unless, provided that); a single absolute word can make an otherwise plausible option false.

For 'which statement is best supported' items, prefer the option entailed by the text over one merely consistent with it.

Legal writing structure: issue, rule, application, conclusion; keep each paragraph to one proposition with supporting authority.

Use plain English and active voice; avoid archaic legalese ('hereinbefore', 'said contract') unless quoting a statute or judgment.

When summarising, retain the actor, the action, and the condition; dropping a condition (e.g., 'without consent') changes legal meaning.

Punctuation affecting meaning: restrictive clauses take no commas; 'the tenant who paid' differs from 'the tenant, who paid'.

Conditional logic: 'if P then Q' entails 'if not Q then not P' (contrapositive) but not 'if Q then P' (converse error).

'Only if' introduces a necessary condition: 'P only if Q' means P implies Q. 'If' introduces a sufficient condition.

'Unless' means 'if not': 'P unless Q' is equivalent to 'if not Q then P'.

Necessary versus sufficient: a necessary condition may have other causes; a sufficient condition guarantees the outcome.

For sequencing and ordering puzzles, fix the most constrained element first, then test remaining placements against each rule.

Grouping puzzles: count available slots per group and track which entities are forced together or excluded from each other.

Percentages and base rates: a 90% accurate test applied to a 1% prevalence population yields many false positives; compute actual counts, not just rates.

Spot reasoning flaws: affirming the consequent, denying the antecedent, ad hominem, straw man, circular reasoning, and equivocation between two senses of a term.

Paramount duty: a barrister owes duties to the court and the administration of justice that override client instructions and personal interest.

Cab-rank rule: a barrister must accept a brief in a field in which they practise if available and the fee is acceptable, subject to specified exceptions (e.g., conflict, incompetence, withdrawal of instructions).

Confidentiality and privilege: client confidences must not be disclosed without consent, save where compelled by law or to prevent a serious criminal offence.

Conflict of interest: a barrister must decline or return a brief where a personal or financial interest, or a prior retainer, creates a real possibility of conflict.

Duty to the court includes not misleading the court, correcting an inadvertent misstatement promptly, and disclosing adverse authorities.

Client money: barristers generally do not hold client funds; trust money is handled under regulated trust account rules and audited.

Communication with an opposing party who is legally represented should be through their representative, not directly.

Continuing professional development and practising certificate conditions: practice is permitted only while holding a current certificate and complying with CPD obligations.