OAGB Bar Final Assessment 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, relatedness of the claim, and reasonableness under fair play and substantial justice.

Supplemental Jurisdiction

Federal court power under 28 U.S.C. § 1367 over claims sharing a common nucleus of operative fact with a claim within original jurisdiction, subject to diversity limits.

Erie Doctrine

Rule that federal courts apply state substantive law and federal procedural rules in diversity cases to avoid forum shopping and inequitable administration.

Claim Preclusion

Bars relitigation of the same claim after a final judgment on the merits by a court with jurisdiction over identical parties or their privies.

Strict Scrutiny

Most demanding review requiring a compelling government interest, narrow tailoring, and least restrictive means; applies to suspect classes and fundamental rights.

State Action Doctrine

Constitutional rights generally constrain government conduct, not private parties, unless entanglement, public function, or state encouragement is present.

Dormant Commerce Clause

Judicial doctrine barring state laws that discriminate against or unduly burden interstate commerce absent a legitimate local purpose served by nondiscriminatory means.

Intermediate Scrutiny

Review requiring an important government interest and means substantially related to that interest; applies to sex classifications and content-neutral time, place, manner rules.

Promissory Estoppel

Enforceable promise where the promisor reasonably expects reliance, reliance occurs, and injustice can be avoided only by enforcement, even without consideration.

Statute of Frauds

Requires certain contracts to be in writing and signed, including land sales, suretyship, marriage, one-year performance, and goods over $500.

Anticipatory Repudiation

Unequivocal indication before performance is due that a party will not perform, permitting the other party to suspend performance or sue immediately.

Expectation Damages

Remedy placing the nonbreaching party in the position it would have occupied had the contract been fully performed, including foreseeable consequential losses.

Felony Murder Rule

Liability for any death occurring during the commission of an inherently dangerous felony, requiring an independent felony and proximate causation.

Accomplice Liability

Criminal responsibility for one who aids, abets, or encourages a crime with intent to facilitate, including foreseeable crimes within the common plan.

Miranda Warnings

Required advisements of rights to silence and counsel before custodial interrogation, with waiver required for admissibility of resulting statements.

Exclusionary Rule

Suppresses evidence obtained through unconstitutional searches or seizures, subject to exceptions including good faith, inevitable discovery, and attenuation.

Hearsay Definition

An out-of-court statement offered to prove the truth of the matter asserted, generally inadmissible unless an exclusion or exception applies.

Excited Utterance

Hearsay exception for a statement relating to a startling event made while the declarant was under the stress of excitement it caused.

Rule 403 Balancing

Permits exclusion of relevant evidence if probative value is substantially outweighed by unfair prejudice, confusion, misleading the jury, or waste of time.

Character Evidence Rule

Generally inadmissible to prove conduct in conformity, subject to criminal defendant's opening the door and rebuttal by prosecution.

Rule Against Perpetuities

No interest is valid unless it must vest or terminate, if at all, within 21 years after a life in being at creation.

Adverse Possession

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

Joint Tenancy

Concurrent estate with right of survivorship requiring the four unities of time, title, interest, and possession; severed by conveyance.

Recording Acts

Race, notice, and race-notice statutes determine priority between a prior unrecorded interest and a subsequent purchaser, often protecting good-faith purchasers.

Res Ipsa Loquitur

Permits an inference of negligence where the instrumentality was in exclusive control, the event ordinarily does not occur without negligence, and the plaintiff did not contribute.

Proximate Cause

Foreseeability-based limit on liability requiring that the harm be within the risk created by the defendant's conduct, excluding superseding causes.

Negligence Per Se

Violation of a statute designed to protect a class including the plaintiff against the type of harm suffered establishes breach as a matter of law.

Actual Malice

Defamation standard for public officials and figures requiring knowledge of falsity or reckless disregard for the truth of the statement.

IRAC Method

Analytical structure presenting the Issue, the governing Rule, Application of facts to rule, and a Conclusion predicting the likely outcome.

Analogize and Distinguish

Reasoning technique comparing material facts of precedent to the client's facts, explaining why similarities or differences affect the legal outcome.

Holding Versus Dicta

Holding is the court's necessary resolution of the issue binding on lower courts; dicta is nonessential commentary with persuasive but not binding weight.

Predictive Memorandum

Objective legal analysis addressing favorable and adverse authority to forecast how a court would likely resolve the client's question.