PCCE Paralegal flashcards

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

Rule 12(b)(6) motion

A pretrial motion asserting the complaint fails to state a claim upon which relief can be granted; the court tests the legal sufficiency of the allegations, not their truth.

Res judicata

Claim preclusion barring a second suit on the same claim between the same parties or their privies after a final judgment on the merits.

Summary judgment standard

Judgment without trial when pleadings, discovery, and affidavits show no genuine dispute of material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.

Removal deadline

A defendant generally must file the notice of removal within 30 days after receiving the initial pleading that sets forth a removable claim, under 28 U.S.C. 1446(b).

Statute of Frauds categories

Common law writing requirements covering promises about marriage, contracts exceeding one year, land, executor liability, goods of $500 or more, and suretyship.

Mailbox rule

Under common law, an acceptance is effective on dispatch, while a revocation of an offer is effective only when the offeree receives it.

Perfect tender rule

A UCC rule letting a buyer reject goods that fail in any respect to conform to the contract, subject to the seller's right to cure the nonconformity.

Expectation damages

A contract remedy putting the injured party where performance would have: loss in value plus other loss, minus costs avoided and losses avoided.

Business judgment rule

A presumption that directors acted on an informed basis, in good faith, and in the honest belief the action served the corporation's best interests.

Piercing the corporate veil

Disregarding limited liability when owners used the entity as an alter ego, undercapitalized it, or committed fraud, making personal assets reachable by creditors.

Charging order

A creditor's remedy against a debtor's LLC membership interest that grants distribution rights only, without voting or management authority in the company.

Corporate opportunity doctrine

A fiduciary duty barring directors and officers from taking a business opportunity belonging to the corporation unless they disclose it and the corporation declines.

Miranda trigger

The warning requirement applies only when a suspect is in custody and subjected to interrogation by law enforcement; if either element is missing, no warning is required.

Double jeopardy attaches

Protection against a second prosecution for the same offense begins when the jury is sworn or, in a bench trial, when the first witness is sworn.

Exclusionary rule

Evidence obtained through an unconstitutional search or seizure is generally inadmissible in the prosecution's case-in-chief, subject to exceptions like inevitable discovery and attenuation.

Specific intent

A mens rea requiring the defendant to consciously intend the prohibited result or conduct, distinguishing offenses like burglary and attempt from general intent crimes.

Per stirpes distribution

An intestate inheritance method dividing a deceased descendant's share among that person's own descendants, so each family branch receives an equal portion.

Holographic will

A will written in the testator's own handwriting and signed by the testator, valid without witnesses in the states that recognize this form.

Spendthrift trust

A trust provision preventing a beneficiary from voluntarily assigning distributions and shielding trust assets from most of the beneficiary's creditors.

Elective share

A statutory portion of a deceased spouse's estate that the survivor may claim instead of taking under the will, commonly one-third to one-half.

Best interests of the child

The governing custody standard weighing factors such as stability, parental fitness, the child's needs, and sometimes the child's preference, rather than parental fault.

UCCJEA home state

The state where the child lived with a parent for at least six consecutive months before the custody proceeding, which has priority to decide custody.

Equitable distribution

A divorce property division method used outside community property states that allocates marital property fairly under statutory factors without requiring a 50/50 split.

Community property

A marital property doctrine in a minority of states treating most earnings and acquisitions during marriage as jointly owned, each spouse holding one-half at divorce.

Race-notice recording statute

A recording act protecting a later purchaser who takes without notice of a prior unrecorded interest and records before that prior interest is recorded.

Adverse possession elements

Actual, open and notorious, exclusive, hostile, and continuous possession of another's land for the statutory period, which can ripen into title.

Quitclaim deed

A conveyance transferring whatever interest the grantor holds with no covenants of title, leaving the grantee to bear the risk of defects.

Implied warranty of habitability

A landlord's nonwaivable promise that residential premises meet basic health and safety standards, breach of which supports repair-and-deduct or rent withholding remedies.

Res ipsa loquitur

An inference of negligence permitted when the instrumentality was in the defendant's exclusive control and the injury would not ordinarily occur absent negligence.

Negligence per se

A statute violation establishing breach when the plaintiff belongs to the class the statute protects and the harm is the type the statute was meant to prevent.

Modified comparative negligence

A system reducing a plaintiff's recovery by their percentage of fault and barring recovery entirely when that fault reaches or exceeds 50 or 51 percent.

Proximate cause

A causation element limiting liability to harms within the risk that made the conduct negligent, excluding unforeseeable superseding causes that break the chain.