LSB Bar Exam Core flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Minimum Contacts

Standard for personal jurisdiction requiring purposeful availment of the forum's benefits plus fair play and substantial justice; the claim must arise from or relate to those contacts.

Supplemental Jurisdiction

Federal jurisdiction over claims sharing a common nucleus of operative fact with an anchor claim; barred in diversity cases for claims by plaintiffs against certain joined parties.

Erie Doctrine

Federal courts apply state substantive law and federal procedural rules; absent a governing federal rule, state law applies when its disregard would encourage forum shopping or inequitable administration.

Claim Preclusion

Bars relitigation of the same claim after a final judgment on the merits between the same parties or their privies, including claims that could have been raised.

Standing Elements

Constitutional standing requires injury in fact that is concrete and particularized, causation traceable to the defendant, and redressability by a favorable court decision.

Strict Scrutiny

Review applied to suspect classifications and fundamental rights; the government must show a compelling interest and narrow tailoring, and the law is usually invalidated.

Dormant Commerce Clause

Judicial doctrine barring state laws that discriminate against or unduly burden interstate commerce, subject to the market-participant exception and congressional authorization.

State Action Doctrine

Constitutional rights generally restrain only government conduct; private action is reachable only with significant state involvement, public function, or entwinement.

Consideration

A bargained-for exchange of legal value; preexisting duties, past consideration, and illusory promises fail, but promissory estoppel may substitute when injustice would otherwise result.

Statute of Frauds

Requires a writing for marriage, year, land, executor, surety, and goods over $500; merchant confirmations and specially manufactured goods are exceptions.

Parol Evidence Rule

Excludes prior or contemporaneous agreements that contradict or vary an integrated writing; exceptions include fraud, mistake, condition precedent, and course of dealing.

Anticipatory Repudiation

A clear statement or act indicating the party will not perform, allowing the nonbreaching party to sue immediately or await performance; adequate assurances may be demanded.

Felony Murder

Murder liability for a death occurring during an inherently dangerous felony, subject to limitations such as proximate cause and the merger doctrine.

Terry Stop

A brief investigative detention based on reasonable suspicion, permitting a limited pat-down for weapons when the officer reasonably believes the suspect is armed.

Miranda Warnings

Required advisements before custodial interrogation: right to remain silent, that statements may be used, right to counsel, and appointed counsel if indigent.

Accomplice Liability

Liability for a crime committed by another when the defendant intentionally aids or encourages the conduct and is liable for foreseeable crimes committed in the course.

Hearsay Definition

An out-of-court statement offered to prove the truth of the matter asserted; nonhearsay uses include effect on the listener and verbal acts.

Excited Utterance

A statement relating to a startling event made while the declarant was under the stress of excitement; admissible regardless of the declarant's availability.

Rule 403 Balancing

Relevant evidence may be excluded when its probative value is substantially outweighed by unfair prejudice, confusion of issues, misleading the jury, or waste of time.

Best Evidence Rule

Requires the original writing, recording, or photograph to prove its contents, with exceptions for lost originals, voluminous records, and collateral matters.

Rule Against Perpetuities

No interest is valid unless it must vest, if at all, within 21 years after a life in being at creation; applies to contingent remainders and executory interests.

Joint Tenancy

Concurrent ownership requiring the four unities of time, title, interest, and possession, with a right of survivorship that passes the decedent's share to surviving tenants.

Adverse Possession

Acquisition of title through actual, exclusive, continuous, open and notorious, and hostile possession for the statutory period, with tacking of successive possessors.

Recording Acts

Race, notice, and race-notice statutes determine priority among competing grantees; the shelter rule protects a grantee who takes from a prior grantee.

Res Ipsa Loquitur

Permits an inference of negligence when the instrumentality was in the defendant's exclusive control and the accident ordinarily does not occur absent negligence.

Proximate Cause

Foreseeability-based limitation on liability; unforeseeable intervening causes supersede, while the eggshell plaintiff rule holds the defendant liable for unforeseeable extent of harm.

Strict Products Liability

Liability for a defective product causing harm when the defect existed at sale and made the product unreasonably dangerous, regardless of fault.

Assumption of Risk

A defense requiring a voluntary and knowing acceptance of a known risk; it bars or reduces recovery depending on the jurisdiction's comparative fault rules.

Apparent Authority

Authority arising when the principal's manifestations lead a third party reasonably to believe the agent has authority, binding the principal to the transaction.

Business Judgment Rule

A presumption that directors acted on an informed basis, in good faith, and in the corporation's best interest, shielding decisions from liability absent breach.

Piercing the Corporate Veil

Disregarding limited liability when the corporation is an alter ego or used for fraud and injustice, shown by undercapitalization, commingling, or ignored formalities.

Confidentiality Rule 1.6

A lawyer may not reveal information relating to representation without informed consent, except to prevent reasonably certain death or substantial bodily harm or to comply with law.