Guam Bar cheat sheet

Subject-matter jurisdiction: federal courts hear federal-question cases (28 U.S.C. §1331) and diversity cases where the amount in controversy exceeds $75,000 and no plaintiff shares citizenship with any defendant (§1332); complete diversity is required at filing.

Personal jurisdiction: general jurisdiction exists where a defendant is 'at home' (state of incorporation and principal place of business for a corporation; domicile for an individual); specific jurisdiction requires purposeful availment, claims arising from or relating to contacts, and reasonableness under fair play and substantial justice.

Pleading under Rule 8(a) needs a short plain statement of jurisdiction, entitlement to relief, and demand for relief; fraud and mistake require particularity under Rule 9(b). A complaint is dismissed under Rule 12(b)(6) only if no plausible claim is stated.

Erie doctrine: in diversity cases federal courts apply state substantive law (including statutes of limitations and elements of claims) and federal procedural law; if federal law directly conflicts with state practice, apply the federal rule when it is valid under the Rules Enabling Act.

Summary judgment under Rule 56 is granted only when no genuine dispute of material fact exists and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law; the nonmovant gets all reasonable inferences, but must point to specific record evidence.

Preclusion: claim preclusion bars a later suit on the same claim between the same parties or their privies; issue preclusion bars relitigation of an issue actually litigated, determined, and necessary to the prior judgment, even against a nonparty in some defensive contexts.

Discovery scope under Rule 26(b)(1) is any nonprivileged matter relevant to any party's claim or defense and proportional to the needs of the case; work product is discoverable only on substantial need and undue hardship.

Removal: a defendant may remove within 30 days of service of the initial pleading; diversity cases cannot be removed more than one year after commencement, and in-state defendants generally cannot remove on diversity grounds.

Standing requires injury in fact (concrete and particularized, actual or imminent), causation traceable to the defendant, and redressability by a favorable ruling; third-party standing is disfavored.

Strict scrutiny applies to suspect classifications (race, national origin, alienage in most contexts) and fundamental rights (voting, travel, privacy, marriage); the law must be narrowly tailored to a compelling interest.

Intermediate scrutiny applies to sex and illegitimacy classifications: the classification must serve an important governmental objective and be substantially related to achieving it; the burden rests on the state.

Rational basis review applies to age, wealth, disability, and sexual orientation in most contexts: the law must be rationally related to a legitimate government interest; the challenger bears the burden.

Commerce power reaches channels of interstate commerce, instrumentalities of interstate commerce, and activities substantially affecting interstate commerce; post-Lopez, noneconomic intrastate activity needs a jurisdictional hook.

Due process: procedural due process uses the Mathews v. Eldridge balancing of private interest, risk of erroneous deprivation, and government burden; substantive due process protects fundamental rights against arbitrary interference.

First Amendment speech: content-based restrictions get strict scrutiny; content-neutral time, place, and manner rules get intermediate scrutiny and must leave open ample alternative channels.

Dormant Commerce Clause: state laws discriminating against interstate commerce are per se invalid absent a legitimate local purpose that cannot be served by reasonable nondiscriminatory means; nondiscriminatory laws are upheld unless burdens clearly exceed local benefits.

Common-law contract formation requires offer, acceptance, consideration, and mutual assent; under UCC Article 2 a contract may be formed by any manner showing agreement, and the UCC applies to transactions in goods.

UCC §2-207: a definite and seasonable expression of acceptance operates as an acceptance even with additional or different terms; between merchants, additional terms become part of the contract unless they materially alter it, are objected to, or the offer limits acceptance to its terms.

Statute of frauds categories: marriage, year (cannot be performed within one year), land, executor's promise to pay estate debts personally, goods over $500, and surety promises; UCC §2-306 requires a writing for goods over $500, subject to merchant confirmation and special-manufacture exceptions.

Expectation damages place the nonbreaching party in the position performance would have produced; consequential damages require foreseeability under Hadley v. Baxendale; mitigation limits recovery, and liquidated damages must be reasonable in light of anticipated or actual loss.

Anticipatory repudiation occurs when a party clearly indicates it will not perform before the due date; the nonbreaching party may treat it as breach immediately or await performance, and may demand adequate assurance under UCC §2-609.

Impracticability excuses performance only where an unforeseen event makes performance commercially impracticable without fault of the party; frustration of purpose requires that the principal purpose of the contract be substantially frustrated.

Parol evidence rule bars prior or contemporaneous agreements that contradict a fully integrated writing; consistent additional terms may be shown unless the writing is fully integrated, and evidence of fraud, mistake, or condition precedent remains admissible.

Third-party beneficiaries: intended beneficiaries may enforce a contract; vesting occurs when the beneficiary manifests assent, brings suit, or materially changes position, after which the parties cannot rescind without consent.

Fourth Amendment: a search occurs when government action intrudes on a reasonable expectation of privacy; a seizure of a person occurs when a reasonable person would not feel free to leave. Warrantless searches are presumptively unreasonable subject to exceptions.

Exceptions to the warrant requirement include search incident to lawful arrest, automobile (including container search incident to arrest and probable cause), plain view, consent, exigent circumstances, inventory, and Terry stop-and-frisk on reasonable suspicion.

Exclusionary rule bars evidence obtained through unconstitutional searches or coerced confessions; exceptions include inevitable discovery, independent source, attenuation, and good-faith reliance on a warrant.

Miranda warnings (custody plus interrogation) require notice of the right to remain silent, that statements may be used, the right to counsel, and appointed counsel; waiver must be knowing, voluntary, and intelligent.

Sixth Amendment right to counsel attaches at the initiation of adversarial judicial proceedings (formal charge, preliminary hearing, indictment, information, arraignment); it is offense-specific.

Criminal liability requires actus reus (voluntary act or omission where a duty exists) and mens rea (purpose, knowledge, recklessness, or negligence); strict liability offenses require no mens rea.

Homicide: murder requires malice aforethought (intent to kill, intent to inflict serious bodily harm, reckless indifference to an unjustifiably high risk, or felony murder); voluntary manslaughter requires adequate provocation; involuntary manslaughter requires criminal negligence or misdemeanor manslaughter.

Defenses: self-defense requires reasonable belief in imminent unlawful force and proportional response; insanity tests include M'Naghten (did not know wrongfulness) and Model Penal Code (lacks substantial capacity to appreciate or conform).

Relevance requires that evidence have any tendency to make a fact of consequence more or less probable; Rule 403 permits exclusion when probative value is substantially outweighed by unfair prejudice, confusion, or waste of time.

Character evidence is generally inadmissible to prove conduct, but is admissible when character is an essential element (defamation, child custody), for impeachment, and under the mercy rule in criminal cases; evidence of prior sexual assault or child molestation is admissible under FRE 413-415.

Hearsay is an out-of-court statement offered for the truth of the matter asserted; nonhearsay includes verbal acts, effect on the listener, and statements offered for impeachment.

Hearsay exemptions include opposing party statements (FRE 801(d)(2)), prior consistent statements, prior inconsistent statements under oath, and identification of a person after perceiving them.

Hearsay exceptions regardless of declarant availability include present sense impression, excited utterance, then-existing mental, emotional, or physical condition, statements for medical diagnosis, recorded recollection, business records, public records, and ancient documents.

Confrontation Clause bars testimonial hearsay from an unavailable declarant unless the defendant had a prior opportunity to cross-examine; nontestimonial statements (e.g., 911 calls during ongoing emergency) are not barred.

Impeachment methods include prior inconsistent statements, bias, sensory or mental capacity, character for truthfulness (conviction of a crime involving dishonesty or false statement is always admissible), and contradiction.

Privileges: attorney-client and spousal privileges protect confidential communications; the psychotherapist-patient privilege is recognized in federal court; in diversity cases state privilege law governs under Erie principles.

Fee simple absolute is the largest estate, freely alienable and inheritable; a fee simple determinable ends automatically on the happening of a stated event and the grantor retains a possibility of reverter; a fee simple subject to condition subsequent requires the grantor to exercise a right of entry.

Life estate lasts for the life of a named person; the holder may not commit waste, and the remainderman holds a future interest that becomes possessory at the life tenant's death.

Concurrent estates: joint tenancy requires the four unities (time, title, interest, and possession) and carries a right of survivorship; tenancy in common has no survivorship and unequal shares are permitted; tenancy by the entirety exists only between spouses.

Adverse possession requires actual, open and notorious, exclusive, continuous possession that is hostile for the statutory period; color of title and payment of taxes may shorten the period by statute.

Recording acts: race-notice statutes protect a subsequent purchaser who records first without notice; notice statutes protect a subsequent purchaser without notice regardless of recording order; race statutes protect the first to record.

Easements may be created by express grant or reservation, implication (prior use, necessity), prescription, or estoppel; an easement appurtenant benefits a dominant tenement, while an easement in gross benefits a person.

Landlord-tenant: the implied warranty of habitability requires the landlord to maintain the premises; retaliatory eviction is prohibited; a tenant may assign (transferring the entire remaining term) or sublet (retaining any part).

Zoning and takings: a regulation that denies all economically beneficial use is a per se taking under Lucas; exactions require an essential nexus and rough proportionality under Nollan and Dolan; regulatory takings use the Penn Central factors.

Negligence requires duty, breach, actual causation, proximate causation, and damages; duty is owed to foreseeable plaintiffs under the Cardozo approach, and to anyone in the zone of danger under the Andrews approach.

Standard of care is that of a reasonable person; professionals are held to the standard of their profession; children to a reasonable child of like age and intelligence (except adult activities); landowners owe trespassers only a duty to refrain from willful or wanton injury.

Premises liability: invitees are owed reasonable care to inspect and warn of hidden dangers; licensees must be warned of known dangers; a landowner owes reasonable care to known trespassers for active operations.

Res ipsa loquitur permits an inference of negligence when the accident is of a kind that ordinarily does not occur without negligence, was caused by an instrumentality in the defendant's exclusive control, and was not due to the plaintiff's own contribution.

Strict liability applies to abnormally dangerous activities (factors: high degree of risk, likelihood of great harm, inability to eliminate risk with reasonable care, uncommon activity, inappropriate location, and value to community) and to wild animals and known-dangerous domestic animals.

Products liability theories: negligence, strict liability (defective design, manufacturing defect, or failure to warn), and breach of warranty; a seller is liable for a defective product that is unreasonably dangerous and causes harm.

Defenses: comparative negligence reduces recovery in most jurisdictions; contributory negligence bars recovery in a minority; assumption of risk requires knowledge and voluntary acceptance of the risk; rescue doctrine extends duty to rescuers.

Defamation requires a defamatory statement of and concerning the plaintiff, publication, fault, and damages; public figures must prove actual malice (knowledge of falsity or reckless disregard) under New York Times v. Sullivan.

The Guam Supreme Court is the highest court in the territory; the Superior Court of Guam is the trial court of general jurisdiction; appeals from the Supreme Court may be taken to the U.S. Supreme Court by certiorari or to the Ninth Circuit in limited contexts.

The Guam Organic Act (48 U.S.C. §1421 et seq.) establishes the territorial government, the Bill of Rights, and the relationship with the United States; it grants Guam self-government subject to congressional authority.

The Guam Legislature (I Liheslaturan Guåhan) enacts statutes codified in the Guam Code Annotated; local ordinances are enacted by the Mayors' Council and municipal governments.

The Guam Rules of Civil Procedure largely mirror the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure; the Guam Rules of Evidence track the Federal Rules of Evidence; the Guam Rules of Criminal Procedure follow the federal model.

Guam's local bar admission requires passage of the Guam Bar Examination, a character and fitness review, and compliance with the rules of the Guam Supreme Court; the Guam Bar Association is a voluntary professional organization.

Guam has a unique legal history blending Spanish civil law, Chamorro customary practices, and American common law; the Compiler of Laws publishes the Guam Code Annotated and session laws.

The Guam Judicial Council and the Judicial Branch administer court operations; the Guam Supreme Court has rulemaking authority over practice and procedure in Guam courts.

Local practice: filing deadlines and page limits are set by the Guam Supreme Court rules; electronic filing is required in the Superior Court; attorneys must be admitted to the Guam bar or appear pro hac vice with local counsel.

The MPT presents a closed-universe file containing a task memo, a library of legal authorities, and a factual file; the answer must rely only on materials provided, not on outside law.

The task memo identifies the client, the assignment, the audience (partner, court, client), and the required format (memorandum, brief, letter, contract provision, or other document); follow it precisely.

Read the task memo first to identify the legal issue, then read the library to extract the governing rule, then read the file to marshal facts; do not read the file before knowing the question.

Effective answers use the IRAC or CREAC structure: state the rule from the provided authorities, apply it to the facts, and reach a conclusion; cite the provided authorities by name or page.

The library may contain irrelevant or outdated authorities; distinguish them and explain why they do not control; the exam tests judgment about which sources apply.

Allocate roughly 90 minutes per MPT: about 20-25 minutes reading and outlining, 55-60 minutes writing, and 5-10 minutes reviewing for completeness and format compliance.

Format matters: a memorandum to a partner uses headings and a formal tone; a letter to a client uses plain language; a brief uses point headings and citations; a contract provision uses precise defined terms.

Common pitfalls: ignoring the specific question asked, failing to apply facts to every element, omitting a conclusion, and citing outside law; graders reward rule accuracy, factual application, and organization.