Bar Exam Attack Outlines & Issue Checklists

The order of operations for every subject.

These print-ready checklists compress the full study guide into the sequence you should run when the facts are moving faster than your memory. One-sheets are built for all nine subjects: Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law, Contracts, Criminal Law & Procedure, Evidence, Real Property, Torts, Business Associations, Family Law. Each module's checklist is the same attack sequence used in its full outline entry, stripped down to the steps and the trigger rule so it fits on a single printed page for last-week review. Print the sheets for your weakest two or three subjects rather than all nine: a stack you actually reread in the final week beats a complete binder you open once.

One-sheet attack outlines by subject
Subject	Modules
Civil Procedure	25
Constitutional Law	21
Contracts	24
Criminal Law & Procedure	24
Evidence	22
Real Property	31
Torts	28
Business Associations	22
Family Law	16

ONE-SHEET 01

Civil Procedure

Full outline →

Federal-question jurisdiction

Is federal law an element of the claim?
Is the issue substantial to the federal system, not merely important to the parties?
Would federal jurisdiction upset the congressionally approved division of labor?

Trigger rule: A federal court has federal-question jurisdiction only when a federal issue appears on the face of the well-pleaded complaint and satisfies the federal cause-of-action or embedded-federal-issue route.

Diversity and alienage jurisdiction

Identify every party and every citizenship at filing.
Confirm no plaintiff shares citizenship with any defendant.
Calculate whether the pleaded amount legally could exceed $75,000.

Trigger rule: Diversity requires complete diversity measured at filing and a good-faith amount in controversy exceeding $75,000.

Supplemental jurisdiction

Find an original jurisdiction anchor.
Test common nucleus.
If diversity is the sole anchor, apply the plaintiff-side statutory exclusions.
Consider discretionary decline only after power exists.

Trigger rule: Supplemental jurisdiction covers claims within the same Article III case, but diversity-only plaintiff claims listed in section 1367(b) remain restricted.

Removal, remand, and the forum-defendant rule

Could the case originally have been filed federally?
Who seeks removal and have all served defendants consented?
Check forum citizenship, deadlines, and destination.
Classify the remand objection as procedural or jurisdictional.

Trigger rule: A removable case must satisfy original federal jurisdiction and every applicable removal procedure, including the diversity forum-defendant rule.

General and specific personal jurisdiction

Find the forum statute.
Test consent, waiver, domicile, or service.
Choose general or specific jurisdiction.
For specific jurisdiction: purposeful contact, relatedness, fairness.
Check notice and service separately.

Trigger rule: Specific jurisdiction requires the defendant's purposeful forum contact, a claim arising out of or relating to it, and a reasonable exercise of authority.

Service of process, venue, transfer, and forum non conveniens

Separate notice, service, personal jurisdiction, and venue.
Identify every statutory venue route.
Decide whether original venue is proper.
Choose transfer or dismissal and state the choice-of-law consequence.

Trigger rule: Federal venue focuses on defendants and substantial events; transfer doctrine then addresses convenience, justice, and any valid forum-selection clause.

Erie, federal common law, and conflicts

Identify the source of federal authority.
Ask whether federal and state rules directly collide.
If no collision, perform the modified outcome-determinative analysis.
State the chosen law and why.

Trigger rule: Under Erie, valid controlling federal law governs procedure; otherwise the federal court applies forum-state substantive law and its conflicts rules.

Complaints, answers, plausibility, and Rule 11

Identify pleading type and deadline.
Separate factual allegations from conclusions.
Check heightened pleading.
Track waivable defenses.
For sanctions, identify certification, notice, safe harbor, and permissible target.

Trigger rule: A complaint must plead factual matter supporting a plausible claim, and every filed paper must satisfy Rule 11 after reasonable inquiry.

Amendments and relation back

Is amendment available as of right?
If leave is needed, analyze delay, prejudice, bad faith, and futility.
If limitations expired, select the relation-back route.
For a new party, test notice and mistake.

Trigger rule: A post-limitations amendment relates back when it shares the original transaction and, for a changed party, timely notice and a qualifying identity mistake exist.

Joinder, impleader, intervention, and interpleader

Name the device and its elements.
Test jurisdiction independently, including section 1367(b).
Determine whether any claim is compulsory.
For Rule 19, separate needed, feasible, and indispensable inquiries.

Trigger rule: Joinder requires the correct procedural device and an independent jurisdictional basis or valid supplemental jurisdiction for each added claim.

Class actions

Define the proposed class and representative.
Apply all four Rule 23(a) prerequisites.
Choose the exact Rule 23(b) route.
Address notice, opt-out rights, manageability, and jurisdiction.

Trigger rule: A class may be certified only when Rule 23(a) and one Rule 23(b) category are proved with evidence and the court addresses the applicable notice and opt-out protections.

Scope, privileges, work product, and sanctions

Identify the discovery device and proper recipient.
Test relevance, privilege, and proportionality.
For work product, ask why and when the material was prepared.
Use a motion to compel and certification when required before sanctions.
For lost ESI, apply the specialized rule.

Trigger rule: Discovery reaches proportional, relevant, nonprivileged matter, while privilege, work product, and preservation rules require issue-specific protection and remedies.

Summary judgment, JMOL, renewed JMOL, and new trial

Identify timing and governing motion.
State who bears production and persuasion.
Do not weigh credibility on summary judgment or JMOL.
For renewed JMOL, confirm preservation.
Separate harmless error from grounds requiring a new trial.

Trigger rule: JMOL requires legally insufficient evidence and a timely pre-verdict motion; renewed JMOL is confined to preserved grounds, while a new trial addresses broader prejudicial error or injustice.

Juries, judgments, appeals, and preclusion

Classify relief as legal or equitable.
Find a final judgment or interlocutory-review exception.
For later litigation, choose claim or issue preclusion.
Identify the precise transaction or issue and the party to be bound.

Trigger rule: A valid final judgment bars later transactional claims and actually litigated essential issues, subject to the distinct elements and fairness limits of claim and issue preclusion.

Temporary restraining orders and preliminary injunctions

Decide whether the order sought is a restraining order or a preliminary injunction and whether notice was given.
Walk the four Winter factors and note which are shown as likely rather than merely possible.
Check the Rule 65(b) affidavit and attorney certification for any order without notice, and the 14-day limit.
Confirm security, specificity of terms, and who is bound, then consider whether an interlocutory appeal lies.

Trigger rule: State whether the order is a restraining order or a preliminary injunction, apply the notice rules, run the Winter factors, and finish with security, specificity, and appealability.

Rule 12: responsive-pleading deadlines, pre-answer motions, and waiver of defenses

Calculate the deadline to respond from service, waiver, or a ruling on a Rule 12 motion.
List the Rule 12(b) defenses the defendant has and decide which must be raised now to avoid waiver.
Check whether an earlier Rule 12 motion omitted a defense that was then available.
Ask whether matters outside the pleadings were presented, which converts the motion to summary judgment.

Trigger rule: Compute the response deadline, identify each available defense, apply the consolidation and waiver rules, and check whether the motion converts to summary judgment.

Counterclaims, crossclaims, joinder of claims, and permissive joinder of parties

Identify each claim between the parties and ask whether it arises out of the same transaction or occurrence as the opposing party's claim.
Decide whether the claim is a compulsory counterclaim, a permissive counterclaim, or a crossclaim against a coparty.
For joinder of parties, test the same-transaction requirement and the common question requirement.
Ask whether subject-matter jurisdiction supports each added claim, and whether separate trials or consolidation are warranted.

Trigger rule: Classify each claim as compulsory, permissive or crossclaim, apply the same-transaction test, check joinder of parties under Rule 20, and address jurisdiction and separate trials.

Discovery: scope, disclosures, work product, experts, and the discovery devices

Ask whether the matter is nonprivileged, relevant to a claim or defense, and proportional; admissibility is not the test.
Identify the device (deposition, interrogatory, request for production, request for admission, examination) and check its numerical and timing limits.
For documents prepared for the litigation, run the work-product test: substantial need plus no equivalent, with opinion work product protected.
For experts, decide whether the witness is retained or a trial-preparation-only expert, and check report, timing and communication protections.

Trigger rule: State the Rule 26(b)(1) scope, apply privilege and work product, check the device's limits and deadlines, and finish with protective orders and Rule 37 sanctions.

Dismissals, default, summary judgment, judgment as a matter of law, and relief from judgment

Identify how the case ended and when it ended relative to the answer or a summary judgment motion.
For dismissals, decide whether the dismissal is with or without prejudice, and apply the two-dismissal rule.
For post-judgment attacks, match the motion to its deadline: 28 days for Rule 50(b), 59(b), 59(e), and a year for the first three Rule 60(b) grounds.
For an offer of judgment, check the 14-day window and what the unaccepted offer shifts.

Trigger rule: Name the route to final judgment, apply the timing and prejudice rules for it, then address any post-judgment motion by its deadline and standard.

Jury trial: the Seventh Amendment, demand and waiver, jury selection, verdicts, and instructions

Classify each claim as legal or equitable and ask whether a jury right exists on the issue.
Check that a jury demand was served within 14 days after the last pleading directed to the issue and filed.
Ask about jury size, unanimity, and peremptory challenges, and test any strike for a race-based reason.
For instruction error, ask whether the party requested and objected on the record, stating grounds distinctly.

Trigger rule: Classify the claim, apply Beacon Theatres to mixed claims, check the 14-day demand, and then address selection, verdict form, and preservation of instruction error.

Appealability: final decisions, interlocutory orders, Rule 54(b), the collateral order doctrine, and review of findings

Ask whether the order ends the whole action, and if not whether a Rule 54(b) certification exists.
Look for a statutory exception: an injunction order under 1292(a)(1), or a 1292(b) certification and permission.
Test the collateral order doctrine elements for a decision that is separable, important and effectively unreviewable later.
Compute the 30-day deadline and check whether a tolling post-judgment motion was timely.

Trigger rule: State the final-judgment rule, then check each exception in turn, and finish with the deadline and the standard of review.

Service of process: who may serve, methods for individuals and corporations, waiver, and the 90-day limit (Rule 4)

Identify the defendant type: individual, corporation, or another kind of entity.
Match the method to the rule: personal delivery, abode service, an agent, or state law.
Confirm the server is at least 18 and not a party.
Count 90 days from filing and look for good cause or a foreign-service exception.
Check whether the defendant waived service, and calculate the new answer deadline.

Trigger rule: Identify the defendant, apply the correct method under Rule 4(e) or 4(h), check the 90-day limit and any waiver, and state the consequence.

Removal, remand, venue, and transfer of civil cases in federal court

Ask whether the federal court would have had original jurisdiction over the state action.
For a diversity case, apply the forum-defendant rule.
Count the 30 days from service on each defendant, and check the one-year limit if the case became removable later.
Confirm that all properly joined and served defendants joined or consented.
For venue, apply the venue statute and then distinguish dismissal or transfer for wrong venue from transfer for convenience.

Trigger rule: State the basis for federal jurisdiction, then apply the removal restrictions, timing rules, and consent requirements, and finish with the venue or transfer analysis.

Nonparty subpoenas, corporate depositions, document requests, and lost electronic information (Rules 30(b)(6), 34, 37(e), and 45)

Decide whether the target is a party, which calls for Rule 34 or a notice, or a nonparty, which calls for a Rule 45 subpoena.
Check the server, the fee tender, and the 100-mile place-of-compliance limits.
For an organization, look for a Rule 30(b)(6) description and the duty to prepare a designee.
Calculate the response and objection deadlines.
For lost electronic information, ask about reasonable steps, prejudice, and intent to deprive before choosing a sanction.

Trigger rule: Identify whether the person is a party or nonparty, choose the correct discovery device, and apply the timing, geographic, and sanction rules.

Plausible pleading and summary judgment: the Twombly, Iqbal, Celotex, and Anderson standards

On a motion to dismiss, strip out conclusions and labels, then ask whether the remaining facts plausibly show liability.
Ask whether the alleged facts are just as consistent with lawful conduct.
On summary judgment, identify who bears the burden of proof at trial on the disputed element.
Ask whether a reasonable jury could find for the nonmovant on the record evidence.
Look for undisputed objective evidence that contradicts a party's account.

Trigger rule: Explain the plausibility standard and apply it to the pleaded facts, or state the summary judgment standard, allocate the burden, and ask whether a reasonable jury could find for the nonmovant.

ONE-SHEET 02

Constitutional Law

Full outline →

Standing, organizational standing, and third-party rights

Identify each plaintiff and each requested remedy.
State injury, causation, and redressability separately.
For injunctions, identify threatened future injury.
If asserting another's rights, test relationship and hindrance.

Trigger rule: Article III standing is remedy specific and requires concrete injury, traceability, and likely redressability at every stage.

Ripeness, mootness, political questions, and state immunity

Is the injury sufficiently imminent?
Has the dispute remained live through the requested remedy?
Does an exception preserve it?
Is the question committed to another branch?
If a state is sued, identify defendant, relief, waiver, abrogation, or officer-suit route.

Trigger rule: Justiciability requires a fit, live, judicially manageable dispute, and state immunity must be tested against waiver, valid abrogation, and prospective officer relief.

Commerce, taxing, spending, and necessary powers

Name the enumerated power.
Classify regulated conduct.
For aggregation, ask whether activity is economic.
For spending, test notice, relatedness, coercion, and independent bars.
For enforcement legislation, identify the constitutional wrong and remedial fit.

Trigger rule: Federal legislation must rest on an enumerated power and use means within the distinct limits of commerce, taxing, spending, enforcement, and Necessary and Proper doctrine.

Tenth Amendment, commandeering, preemption, and intergovernmental immunity

Identify federal power and target.
Ask whether the law regulates private actors or commands state government.
Classify preemption and compare texts and purposes.
Check discrimination against federal operations.

Trigger rule: Congress may regulate directly or offer valid incentives, but it may not command state legislatures or officers to govern according to federal instructions.

Dormant Commerce Clause and privileges and immunities

Does the law discriminate on face, purpose, or effect?
If yes, apply the near-per-se rule and alternatives.
If evenhanded, balance burden and benefit.
Check market participant and congressional authorization.
Separately test Article IV plaintiff and protected activity.

Trigger rule: Discriminatory interstate-commerce laws are presumptively invalid, while evenhanded burdens receive balancing and Article IV separately protects citizens' fundamental interstate activities.

Presidential authority, appointment, removal, and immunity

Identify source of presidential action.
Place it in the congressional-authorization framework.
Classify the officer and appointing actor.
Examine removal restriction and supervision.
Separate official from unofficial conduct and civil from criminal process.

Trigger rule: Presidential action is evaluated against constitutional authority and Congress's expressed will, with appointment, removal, immunity, and privilege analyzed separately.

Protected interests and required process

Identify governmental action.
Define the exact liberty or property interest and source.
Determine when deprivation occurs.
Apply all three balancing factors.
Specify required notice, hearing, evidence, counsel, and timing.

Trigger rule: Procedural due process applies when government deprives a protected interest and requires safeguards calibrated to private stakes, error risk, and public burden.

Substantive due process and fundamental rights

Define the asserted right precisely.
Identify constitutional source and whether it is fundamental.
Determine direct burden and choose scrutiny.
Apply objective and fit without inventing facts.

Trigger rule: Substantive due process protects carefully defined fundamental liberties from unjustified government interference and otherwise leaves ordinary regulation to rational-basis review.

Classifications, discriminatory purpose, and tiers of scrutiny

Identify the exact classification.
Determine whether facial, administered, or purpose-based.
Choose scrutiny and allocate burden.
Evaluate actual objective and fit.
If a fundamental right is involved, analyze that route too.

Trigger rule: Equal protection requires identification of the classification and purpose before applying strict, intermediate, or rational-basis review.

Takings, exactions, and contracts

Identify the property interest and government action.
Choose physical, total-use, Penn Central, exaction, or other doctrine.
Analyze parcel and background limitations.
Determine public use and compensation remedy.

Trigger rule: A taking may be physical, total, ad hoc regulatory, or an unconstitutional exaction, and just compensation is ordinarily the constitutional remedy.

Content regulation, unprotected speech, and overbreadth

Is conduct expressive and is government responsible?
Read the law for content and viewpoint triggers.
Test exact elements of any unprotected category.
Choose facial or as-applied challenge and remedy.
Consider vagueness and prior restraint.

Trigger rule: Content-based speech laws generally require strict scrutiny, and claimed unprotected speech must satisfy the precise elements of a historically recognized category.

Public forums, time-place-manner rules, and government speech

Identify property and speaker.
Classify forum or government speech.
Determine content and viewpoint neutrality.
Apply the matching forum test.
Check licensing discretion, alternatives, and tailoring.

Trigger rule: Speech on government property is governed by forum-specific standards, with viewpoint neutrality required in every forum open to private speech.

Free exercise, establishment, association, and compelled speech

Identify law, burden, and comparator.
Test neutrality in text, purpose, administration, and exemptions.
For establishment, identify practice, history, coercion, and government attribution.
For compelled speech, determine speaker, message, and perceived attribution.
For association, identify expressive purpose and burden.

Trigger rule: Religious burdens turn on neutrality and general applicability, while establishment, compelled speech, and association require attention to government attribution, coercion, and expressive autonomy.

Separation of powers: presentment, the legislative veto, the line-item veto, executive power, war powers, and Speech or Debate

Identify who acted (Congress, one house, the President) and whether the action changes legal rights and duties.
If it does, ask whether it satisfied bicameralism and presentment or was done under a valid delegation.
For presidential action without a statute, place it in Justice Jackson's framework of authority and check whether Congress has authorized, been silent, or opposed it.
For Speech or Debate, ask whether the act is a legislative act or merely related to the legislative process.

Trigger rule: Ask whether an action is legislative in effect, apply Article I, section 7, then apply Youngstown to any presidential action lacking statutory authority, and finish with the specific clause at issue.

Incorporation of the Bill of Rights and unconstitutional conditions

Identify the Bill of Rights guarantee and ask whether it has been incorporated against the states.
If it has, apply it with the same content it has against the federal government.
For a benefit with a condition, ask whether the condition defines the limits of the program or leverages the benefit to reach conduct outside it.
For a permit condition, ask whether the condition is connected to the reason the government could have denied the permit.

Trigger rule: State the incorporation test and identify whether the right is incorporated, then apply it with the same content, and for a conditional benefit ask whether the condition is within or outside the program.

Advisory opinions and adequate and independent state grounds

Ask whether the request is for an opinion on a hypothetical question or in a case with adverse parties.
For Supreme Court review of a state judgment, ask whether a federal question was decided and whether the judgment could stand on state law alone.
Read the state opinion for a clear and express statement of an independent state ground.
If the opinion relies primarily on federal law with only passing state law citations, assume review is available.

Trigger rule: State the case-or-controversy limit, then explain that a state judgment resting on an adequate and independent state ground is not reviewable, and apply the Michigan v. Long presumption.

Federal administrative agencies: removal power, appointments, delegation, judicial review of statutes, and agency adjudication

Identify the officer or body and whether it exercises significant executive power.
Ask whether the removal limit fits one of the two recognized exceptions or extends beyond them.
For appointments, decide whether the officer is a principal or an inferior officer and who appointed him.
For delegation, ask whether Congress supplied an intelligible principle.
For adjudication, ask whether the action seeks civil penalties for a claim like a common-law action, which triggers the jury right.

Trigger rule: Identify the structural feature challenged, name the constitutional provision, and test it against the recognized exceptions and the intelligible-principle standard.

Religion clauses: legislative prayer, religious displays, school aid, neutral laws, individualized exemptions, and religious status

Decide whether the claim arises under the Establishment Clause or the Free Exercise Clause.
For an Establishment Clause claim, ask about historical practice and coercion and not the Lemon test.
For a free exercise claim, ask whether the law is neutral and generally applicable, including any individualized exemption system.
If it is not, apply strict scrutiny: compelling interest and narrow tailoring.
For benefits, ask whether the denial rests on religious status, which triggers strict scrutiny.

Trigger rule: State which clause applies, name the test the Court now uses, and apply it to the facts, noting neutrality, general applicability, and religious status.

Free speech: incitement, fighting words, forums, permit schemes, public employees, students, and press access

Decide whether the speech is protected or falls in a category such as incitement or fighting words.
For a regulation, ask whether it is content-based, which triggers strict scrutiny, or content-neutral, which triggers intermediate scrutiny.
Classify the forum and apply the corresponding test.
For a permit scheme, look for standards that limit the official's discretion.
For public employees and students, identify the setting and apply the special test.

Trigger rule: Classify the speech and the forum, state whether the rule is content-based or content-neutral, and apply the matching standard including alternative channels and discretion.

Fundamental rights: medical treatment, abortion, voting, campaign spending, association, travel, and the right to bear arms

Identify the right asserted and describe it carefully before asking whether it is deeply rooted in history and tradition.
For voting, decide whether the law burdens who may vote, how votes are weighed, or how votes are cast.
For political spending, distinguish contributions from independent expenditures, and classify the speaker.
For association, ask whether the forced member significantly affects the group's expression.
For firearms, ask whether the plain text covers the conduct and whether history supports the regulation.

Trigger rule: Name the right, state the governing test, and apply it to the law, distinguishing rights whose scope depends on history and tradition from rights protected by their own standards.

State sovereign immunity, the spending power, anticommandeering, and the presumption against preemption

For a suit against a state, ask who is sued: the state itself, which has immunity, or a state officer for prospective relief.
Ask whether Congress acted under a power that can abrogate immunity, such as the Fourteenth Amendment, and not under Article I.
For a spending condition, check the four Dole limits and whether the threat is coercive.
For a federal mandate, ask whether it commands the state legislature or executive or regulates private conduct.
For preemption, start with the presumption against preemption and look for clear and manifest purpose.

Trigger rule: Identify whether the federal action regulates private parties or the states themselves, apply the immunity, spending, or anticommandeering rule, and note the presumption against preemption.

ONE-SHEET 03

Contracts

Full outline →

Common law, UCC Article 2, and mixed contracts

Classify the transaction and each promised performance.
Apply predominant purpose to the whole agreement unless instructed otherwise.
State which body of law governs before applying formation or breach rules.

Trigger rule: The predominant purpose of a mixed transaction determines whether common law or Article 2 governs, and that choice controls the remaining analysis.

Offer, preliminary negotiation, and indefiniteness

Find objective commitment, not subjective intent.
Identify offeree and essential terms.
Apply common-law or UCC certainty.
Determine invited acceptance method.

Trigger rule: An offer is an objectively definite present commitment that gives the offeree power to conclude the bargain by the invited acceptance.

Termination of offers and option protection

List every termination event chronologically.
Determine when each communication became effective.
Check consideration, merchant firm offer, performance, and reliance.
Distinguish counteroffer from inquiry.

Trigger rule: Offers are revocable until an effective termination or acceptance unless consideration, a merchant's firm offer, beginning performance, or reliance creates protection.

Acceptance, mailbox rule, and unilateral performance

Identify invited mode and deadline.
Ask whether response is unequivocal or conditional.
Apply dispatch or receipt rule.
For performance, determine beginning, completion, and notice.

Trigger rule: An authorized acceptance ordinarily forms a contract when dispatched, except where the offer, an option, or another rule requires receipt or completed performance.

Consideration, modification, and promissory estoppel

Identify the promise and requested return.
Ask whether exchange was bargained for and legally sufficient.
For modification, choose common law or UCC and test writing requirements.
If consideration fails, test reliance and remedy.

Trigger rule: Consideration requires bargained-for legal value; modifications use governing-law-specific rules, and serious foreseeable reliance may support limited enforcement without consideration.

Capacity, mistake, misrepresentation, duress, and unconscionability

Identify the impaired party and formation moment.
State each element of the specific defense.
Determine who bore the risk.
Distinguish void from voidable.
Address restitution after avoidance.

Trigger rule: Avoidance for mistake, misrepresentation, duress, incapacity, or unconscionability requires the doctrine's specific impairment, materiality, reliance, risk, and remedy elements.

Statute of Frauds and parol evidence

Classify the contract and applicable writing rule.
Identify signed memorandum and missing terms.
Test all exceptions and remedy limits.
For outside terms, find timing and integration level.
State whether the evidence changes, supplements, or explains.

Trigger rule: The Statute of Frauds determines enforceability without a writing; the parol-evidence rule determines the effect of earlier terms on an integrated writing.

Battle of the forms and gap fillers

Find offer and responsive document.
Is response definite and expressly conditional?
Classify parties as merchants for the transaction.
Classify term as additional or different and test material alteration.
If no writings contract, test conduct and knockout.

Trigger rule: A UCC acceptance can form a contract despite variant terms; merchant status, express conditionality, material alteration, objection, and conduct determine the operative terms.

Conditions, substantial performance, and material breach

Identify promise versus condition.
Classify express or constructive.
Determine compliance and possible excuse.
If breached, assess materiality and cure.
State performance and damages consequences separately.

Trigger rule: Express conditions require strict compliance unless excused; constructive conditions use substantial performance and material-breach principles to determine whether counterperformance is due.

Perfect tender, cure, installment contracts, and risk of loss

Identify goods, delivery term, and conformity.
Determine tender, inspection, rejection, acceptance, and notice chronologically.
Test seller's right to cure.
Classify installment or single delivery.
Allocate risk before identifying the casualty bearer.

Trigger rule: UCC sales analysis follows tender, inspection, rejection or acceptance, cure, and risk-of-loss rules rather than common-law substantial performance alone.

Anticipatory repudiation, assurance, impracticability, and frustration

State the promised future performance and timing.
Distinguish unequivocal repudiation from insecurity.
Track assurance and retraction.
For excuse, identify event, basic assumption, fault, risk allocation, and effect.
Consider partial or temporary excuse and restitution.

Trigger rule: Future duties may be discharged by unequivocal repudiation or narrowly excused when an unallocated, unforeseen event destroys a basic assumption or the known principal purpose.

Expectation, reliance, restitution, and limitations

Choose protected interest.
Calculate baseline and each addition or subtraction.
Apply causation, foreseeability, certainty, and mitigation.
Avoid double recovery.
Consider restitution and agreed remedies.

Trigger rule: Expectation puts the injured party in the performance position but only for losses caused, foreseeable at formation, reasonably certain, and not reasonably avoidable.

Specific performance, liquidated damages, and UCC remedies

Explain why damages are adequate or inadequate.
Check certainty, feasibility, mutuality concerns, and defenses.
For liquidated damages, identify estimation difficulty and proportionality.
For sales, choose buyer or seller formula and relevant market time and place.

Trigger rule: Specific performance addresses inadequate damages, while liquidated damages must reasonably estimate difficult loss rather than punish, and Article 2 supplies transaction-specific buyer and seller remedies.

Beneficiaries, assignment, delegation, and novation

Identify promisee, promisor, and third person.
Determine intended versus incidental benefit and vesting.
For assignment, identify right, restriction, consideration, notice, and defenses.
For delegation, test personal nature and continuing liability.
Find express release for novation.

Trigger rule: Third-party enforcement depends on intended benefit or valid transfer, and delegating performance does not discharge the original obligor without novation.

UCC warranties: express, merchantability, fitness, disclaimers, and remedy limits

Look for statements, descriptions, samples or models by the seller that formed part of the basis of the bargain.
Decide whether the seller is a merchant, and whether the buyer relied on the seller to select goods for a particular purpose.
Check any disclaimer for the required words, conspicuousness and writing, or for language like as is.
Check the buyer's notice, the damages measure, and any contractual limit on remedies.

Trigger rule: Identify the warranty source (express, merchantability, fitness), test any disclaimer under section 2-316, give notice under section 2-607, and measure damages under section 2-714.

Buyer's rights on nonconforming goods: rejection, acceptance, revocation, cure, cover, and damages

Decide whether the buyer rejected, accepted, or revoked, and whether notice was given in time.
Check whether any act after delivery was inconsistent with the seller's ownership.
For revocation, test substantial impairment, the reason for acceptance, and reasonable time.
Choose the damages measure: cover, market price, or accepted-goods warranty damages, and add incidental and foreseeable consequential damages.

Trigger rule: Say whether the buyer rejected, accepted or revoked, apply the notice and timing rules, then choose the remedy and compute damages.

Sales contracts with open terms: formation, price, delivery, time, and cooperation

Ask whether the parties intended a contract and whether there is a reasonably certain basis for a remedy.
For a missing term, find the Article 2 gap filler for price, place, time or payment.
Check whether the parties intended not to be bound unless the open term is settled.
If one party had to specify or cooperate, ask whether it did so in good faith and on time.

Trigger rule: State the open-term rule of section 2-204(3), identify the gap filler, then test good faith for any term left to one party and the excuse rules for failed cooperation.

Modification, waiver, no-oral-modification clauses, and accord and satisfaction by check

Confirm the contract is a sale of goods, so section 2-209 rather than common-law consideration governs modification.
Check for a signed no-oral-modification clause and whether a merchant's form clause was separately signed.
Ask whether the modified contract needs a writing under the statute of frauds, and whether a waiver can be retracted.
For a check marked full payment, test good faith, a bona fide dispute, a conspicuous statement, and repayment within 90 days.

Trigger rule: State that a sales modification needs no consideration, apply the signed-writing and statute-of-frauds limits, treat a failed modification as a possible waiver, and handle accord and satisfaction under section 3-311.

Electronic signatures and records: the federal E-SIGN Act and its exceptions

Confirm the transaction is in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce.
Check whether the subject matter falls within an excluded category such as wills, family law, or listed notices.
Find the intent to sign, which is part of the definition of an electronic signature.
For consumer disclosures required in writing, confirm the consumer's affirmative consent and the required statements.
For an automated system, ask whether the electronic agent's action is attributable to the person to be bound.

Trigger rule: State the general validity rule, check the exceptions, and apply the definition of electronic signature including intent to sign, then address any consumer-consent requirement.

Consideration, forbearance, moral obligation, and promissory estoppel: Hamer, Kirksey, Webb, Red Owl, and Drennan

Look for a bargained-for exchange: something promised, done, or given up in exchange for the promise.
If the only thing given up is a legal right, treat that as consideration and do not weigh its benefit.
If there is no bargain, ask whether the promisor should expect and did induce substantial reliance and whether injustice requires enforcement.
For a promise to pay for past services, ask whether there was a material benefit and a later promise.
For a bid or offer that someone relied on, consider whether reliance made it irrevocable.

Trigger rule: Ask whether there is a bargained-for exchange, apply the forbearance and past-benefit rules, and if not, test promissory estoppel by its three conditions.

Minors, undue influence, mutual mistake, reformation, and nondisclosure (Dodson, Odorizzi, MacKay, Hylton, Laidlaw)

Identify the defense: capacity (minority), undue influence, mistake, or nondisclosure.
For minority, ask whether the minor was overreached and whether the state allows a deduction for use.
For undue influence, find both the vulnerability and the excessive pressure.
For mistake, ask whether it was mutual, about an existing fact, and material to the basis of the contract.
For a writing that misstates the deal, ask whether reformation is available and whether the proof is clear, strong, and convincing.

Trigger rule: Identify which defense is raised, state its elements, and apply it, noting whether the party seeking relief acted fairly and whether the proof meets the required standard.

Liquidated damages, excuse by impracticability under the UCC, and wrongful discharge of at-will employees

For a liquidated damages clause, ask whether the amount is a reasonable forecast of harm and difficult-to-prove loss, and who bears the burden.
For an excuse defense, identify the contingency, whether nonoccurrence was a basic assumption, and whether the seller assumed a greater duty.
If only part of capacity is affected, look for allocation and notice.
For the buyer, look for the written election to terminate or accept the quota within 30 days.
For an at-will discharge, ask whether the reason contravenes a well-established public policy.

Trigger rule: Classify the clause or excuse claim, test it under the reasonableness standard or the basic-assumption standard, and check the required procedure such as allocation and notice.

Third-party beneficiaries, delegation and assignment under the UCC, and the scope of Article 2

Decide whether the contract is for goods, and if so apply Article 2.
Ask whether a delegation is barred because the other party has a substantial interest in the original promisor's performance.
Ask whether an assignment materially changes the other party's duty, burden, or chance of return performance.
For a general assignment, treat it as both an assignment and a delegation unless the language indicates otherwise.
For third-party claims, look for a statute or contract that supports the claim, and see whether the contract merely incorporates statutory duties.

Trigger rule: Identify whether Article 2 applies, then analyze delegation, assignment, and third-party claims under the statute and the cases, noting who remains liable.

Employment agreements: written restraints on trade, wage payment, deductions, and final pay under North Carolina law

Ask whether an agreement restraining competition is in writing and signed by the person who promised not to compete.
Ask separately whether the restraint is reasonable, because the writing requirement is only one requirement.
Identify the regular payday and the date the wages accrued or, for commissions and bonuses, the date the amount became calculable.
For a final paycheck apply the next-regular-payday rule to all wages due.
For a deduction, look for a signed written authorization stating the reason and the amount, and for the advance notice when the amount is not known.
Check whether the employee was notified of any forfeiture policy before a bonus or commission was withheld.
Compute the remedy: unpaid wages, interest, and liquidated damages, and test the good-faith defense.

Trigger rule: State the writing and signature requirement for restraints, decide whether the promise is enforceable, apply the wage payment, final pay, and deduction rules, and compute the remedy including the liquidated damages and the good-faith defense.

ONE-SHEET 04

Criminal Law & Procedure

Full outline →

Act, culpability, and causation

Match a mental state to every material element.
Find a voluntary act or legal duty to act.
Confirm concurrence.
For result crimes, prove actual and proximate cause.

Trigger rule: Criminal liability requires a voluntary act or duty-based omission accompanied by the prescribed mental state and, for a result crime, legal causation.

Murder and degrees

Classify the homicide.
Identify exact malice theory.
For felony murder: felony, independence, timing, agency, and cause.
Then test defenses and mitigation.

Trigger rule: Murder is an unlawful killing with intent-to-kill, serious-injury, depraved-heart, or qualifying felony-murder malice, with degree rules layered on top.

Manslaughter and mitigation

Begin with murder and identify malice.
Test every mitigation element.
Distinguish common-law and MPC formulations.
For unintentional death, compare recklessness, negligence, and felony murder.

Trigger rule: Provocation mitigates murder only when legally adequate, actually causal, and uncooled; lower culpability may instead support involuntary manslaughter.

Assault, battery, confinement, and kidnapping

Identify exact conduct and mental state.
Distinguish completed battery from both assault theories.
For confinement, find boundaries, awareness or harm, and legal authority.
Apply the supplied statute to sexual offenses.

Trigger rule: Assault can be attempted battery or intentional imminent apprehension; every other person offense requires its own statutory act, circumstance, and culpability.

Theft offenses, robbery, burglary, and arson

Determine custody, possession, and title before the taking.
Find when intent arose.
Connect force to the taking for robbery.
Apply common-law or statutory burglary and arson elements exactly.

Trigger rule: Classify property offenses through possession, title, fraudulent method, force, entry, and the precise time intent to deprive arose.

Attempt, solicitation, and conspiracy

Identify target offense and specific intent.
State the attempt act test.
For conspiracy, identify agreement, bilateral or unilateral rule, overt act, and scope.
Analyze merger, impossibility, and withdrawal separately.

Trigger rule: Attempt, solicitation, and conspiracy each require purpose toward a target offense plus the doctrine's act or agreement, with separate merger and withdrawal consequences.

Accomplice liability and withdrawal

Identify principal offense.
Find assistance, encouragement, omission duty, or procurement.
Prove intent to assist and required culpability for the offense.
Analyze extra crimes and effective withdrawal.

Trigger rule: Accomplice liability requires purposeful assistance before or during the crime and application of the jurisdiction's rule for additional offenses and withdrawal.

Self-defense, defense of others, property, and necessity

Identify imminence and unlawfulness.
Classify response as deadly or nondeadly.
Test subjective belief and objective reasonableness.
Check aggressor and retreat.
For necessity, compare harms and alternatives.

Trigger rule: Justification depends on imminence, reasonableness, proportionality, aggressor and retreat limitations, and lack of adequate lawful alternatives.

Insanity, intoxication, duress, mistake, and entrapment

Classify offense mental state.
Choose stated insanity or entrapment test.
Connect intoxication or mistake to an exact element.
For duress, find threat, immediacy, alternatives, and offense limits.

Trigger rule: Excuse and mistake defenses must be matched to the offense's precise mental state and the jurisdiction's stated capacity, coercion, or inducement test.

Searches, seizures, warrants, and personal rights

Identify government actor.
Find search or seizure and its exact moment.
Identify defendant's personal interest.
Test warrant cause, particularity, neutrality, and execution.
Then analyze exception and remedy.

Trigger rule: Fourth Amendment analysis starts with government action, a search or seizure, and the defendant's own protected interest before warrant, exception, and exclusion.

Warrant exceptions and police encounters

Classify consensual encounter, stop, or arrest.
State cause level when action occurred.
Name one exact exception and its scope.
Analyze duration, manner, and later search separately.

Trigger rule: Each warrant exception has its own cause level, justification, scope, and duration; a lawful seizure does not automatically authorize a search.

Miranda, voluntariness, and counsel

Identify statement and government actor.
Was there custody and interrogation?
Were warnings, waiver, or invocation valid?
Had charges attached and was there deliberate elicitation?
Classify violation for use and fruits.

Trigger rule: Statements require separate voluntariness, Miranda custody-interrogation, and post-charge Sixth Amendment deliberate-elicitation analyses.

Identification, disclosure, confrontation, jury, and counsel

Identify procedural stage and attached right.
Apply suggestiveness plus reliability to identification.
For disclosure, find favorability, suppression, and materiality.
For counsel, prove performance and prejudice.
For confrontation, classify testimonial character and cross opportunity.

Trigger rule: Criminal adjudication requires fair identification, disclosure of material favorable evidence, effective counsel, confrontation of testimonial accusers, and an impartial lawfully selected jury.

Double jeopardy, pleas, and punishment

Identify sovereign, charges, and history.
Find attachment and termination.
Compare statutory elements.
Analyze mistrial or appeal exception.
For plea, examine colloquy, voluntariness, basis, and counsel.

Trigger rule: Double jeopardy protection turns on attachment, termination, same-offense elements, sovereign identity, and the reason a first proceeding ended.

Consent, vehicle searches, and the good-faith exception to the exclusionary rule

For consent, ask whether it was voluntary under the totality of circumstances and who gave it.
For a shared home, ask whether the consenting person had common authority and whether a present co-occupant refused.
For a car, ask whether police had probable cause to search the vehicle or a container, or whether they rely on arrest.
For a defective warrant, check whether the officers' reliance was objectively reasonable under one of the four Leon exceptions.

Trigger rule: Identify the exception, apply its limits, and separately ask whether the exclusionary rule still bars the evidence under Leon.

Prosecutor disclosure, the reasonable-doubt standard, harmless error, and race-based jury strikes

Ask whether the evidence is favorable to the accused and material to guilt or punishment, and whether the prosecution suppressed it.
For impeachment evidence about a prosecution witness, check for promises or deals and remember that the trial prosecutor's ignorance is no defense.
For a claim of trial error, ask whether the state can show harmlessness beyond a reasonable doubt.
For a jury strike, run the Batson steps: prima facie showing, neutral explanation, and the court's ruling.

Trigger rule: Identify which trial right is invoked, state the test for it, apply the burden, and check whether the error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.

Conspiracy, Pinkerton liability, accessories, and mistake of law

Identify the agreement and any act taken to effect its object, and decide who joined the conspiracy.
For a coconspirator's substantive crime, ask whether it was committed in furtherance of the conspiracy while the defendant was a member.
For accessory liability, separate aiding before or during the crime from helping the offender after it.
For a mistake-of-law claim, check whether the statute requires knowledge of the legal duty, and whether the claimed belief is about the duty or about validity.

Trigger rule: State the conspiracy elements, apply Pinkerton to substantive offenses by coconspirators, distinguish accessories after the fact, and address mistake of law under Cheek.

Drug possession and distribution offenses, impaired driving, and death or injury by vehicle (federal statutes and North Carolina as the model)

Separate the conduct: simple possession, possession with intent, or distribution.
Find the mental state, which the federal statutes state as knowingly or intentionally.
Read the quantity and drug type against the statute's penalty tiers.
For impaired driving, identify the place of driving, the impairment or measured concentration, and the timing.
For a death or injury, apply the proximate-cause element and check whether the underlying offense was impaired driving.

Trigger rule: Identify the offense, list its elements, and apply the statute's mental state, quantity or concentration, and causation requirements to the facts.

Fruit of the poisonous tree: independent source, inevitable discovery, attenuation, and knock-and-announce

Identify the illegality and the evidence, and decide whether the evidence is primary or derivative.
Ask whether a source independent of the illegality supplied the same evidence, such as a later warrant not prompted by the illegal entry.
Ask whether the prosecution can show by a preponderance that lawful means would inevitably have found it.
For attenuation, weigh timing, any intervening circumstance such as a valid warrant, and the purpose and flagrancy of the misconduct.
For a knock-and-announce violation, ask what interest the rule protects and remember that suppression is not the remedy.

Trigger rule: Name the illegality, classify the evidence as primary or derivative, then test the three exceptions in turn and state which rule applies to the facts.

Miranda: custody warnings, invoking rights, waiver, undercover agents, and Dickerson

Decide whether the suspect was in custody and was being interrogated, since both are needed for Miranda.
Check whether the warnings covered silence, use of statements, the right to a lawyer, and appointed counsel.
Ask whether the suspect invoked a right, and whether the invocation was clear enough for a reasonable officer.
After an invocation, ask whether police-initiated questioning resumed without counsel and whether the suspect himself reopened the conversation.
If there was no invocation, test the waiver for understanding and voluntariness, remembering that it can be implied.

Trigger rule: State the custody and interrogation requirements, then test invocation for clarity and waiver for understanding and voluntariness, and note the special rules for counsel invocation and undercover questioning.

Right to counsel: appointment, attachment, ineffective assistance, self-representation, and conflicts

Ask whether adversary judicial proceedings have begun, since the Sixth Amendment right depends on attachment.
Ask whether the government deliberately elicited statements after attachment and in the absence of counsel.
For ineffective assistance, apply both prongs: deficient performance and a reasonable probability of a different result.
Look for a presumed-prejudice situation such as no counsel at a critical stage or a complete failure to test the prosecution's case.
For self-representation, ask whether the waiver of counsel was voluntary and intelligent, and for conflicts, ask whether the court may refuse a waiver.

Trigger rule: State when the right attaches, then analyze the government's conduct or counsel's performance under the correct test and note any presumption of prejudice.

Eyewitness identification: lineups, showups, voice and physical exemplars, and due process reliability

Identify the procedure: lineup, showup, photo array, or a chance encounter not arranged by police.
Ask whether adversary judicial proceedings had begun, which decides the Sixth Amendment right to counsel.
Ask whether police arranged the procedure and whether it was suggestive and unnecessary.
If it was, weigh the five reliability factors against the suggestiveness.
Remember that compelled appearances and voice samples raise no Fifth Amendment problem.

Trigger rule: Say which amendment protects the defendant at the identification stage, decide whether police procedures were suggestive and unnecessary, and apply the reliability factors.

Administrative and suspicionless searches: schools, checkpoints, borders, new technology, and community caretaking

Decide whether the government conduct is a search or a seizure at all, especially with technology or third-party records.
If it is, ask which recognized category applies: school, border, checkpoint, caretaking, or exigency.
For a checkpoint, identify its primary purpose: roadway safety or border control versus general crime control.
For technology, ask whether the tool is in general public use and whether the government physically intruded on an effect.
If none of the exceptions applies, a warrant based on probable cause is generally required.

Trigger rule: Classify the government's action, identify the exception or the general warrant requirement that applies, and apply its test to the facts.

Homicide grading, felony murder, self-defense, and burdens of proof (North Carolina statutes and Supreme Court cases)

Grade the homicide: identify premeditation and deliberation or a listed felony for first degree, and treat other murders as second degree.
For felony murder, check that the felony is on the statute's list or is a felony committed with a deadly weapon.
For defensive force, test the reasonableness of the belief in imminent death or great bodily harm and whether deadly force was necessary.
Check the home, vehicle, or workplace presumption and its exceptions.
Ask whether the defender was committing a felony or provoked the fight, which removes the justification unless an exception applies.

Trigger rule: Grade the homicide under the statute, then test any justification: reasonableness, imminence, necessity, the occupant presumption, and the felony and provocation exclusions.

ONE-SHEET 05

Evidence

Full outline →

Logical relevance, conditional relevance, and Rule 403

Name the proposition and consequential element.
Explain the inferential chain.
Assess value in light of alternative evidence.
Identify a specific 403 danger and limiting measure.

Trigger rule: Relevant evidence tends to prove a consequential fact and is excluded under Rule 403 only when specified dangers substantially outweigh its contextual value.

Remedial measures, compromise, medical payments, pleas, and insurance

Identify exact conduct and timing.
Was there a disputed claim?
State the offered purpose.
Test a genuine alternative use and Rule 403.
Separate offers from factual admissions.

Trigger rule: Policy exclusions turn on exact conduct, timing, dispute, and purpose; connected factual admissions require separate analysis.

Propensity and character methods

Identify purpose: propensity, element, impeachment, or another theory.
Identify case type and who opened the door.
Select pertinent trait and permitted proof method.
Apply foundation and Rule 403.

Trigger rule: Propensity character is generally barred, but a criminal accused may open the door with a pertinent trait through the permitted method.

Crimes, wrongs, acts, and habit

Identify the disputed issue and inference.
Assess proof, similarity, timing, and need.
Apply notice and limiting instruction.
Compare habit's specificity and regularity.
Finish with Rule 403.

Trigger rule: Other acts require a genuine nonpropensity inference and contextual safeguards, while habit rests on a highly regular specific response.

Competency, personal knowledge, memory, and lay opinion

Identify what the witness perceived.
Separate refreshing from recorded recollection.
Lay timing and accuracy foundations.
For opinion, test perception, helpfulness, and expertise.

Trigger rule: Witness proof requires personal knowledge, and memory aids must be classified as refreshing present recollection or recorded recollection.

Bias, contradiction, truthfulness, convictions, and prior statements

Name the credibility theory.
Choose method and determine whether extrinsic proof is allowed.
Lay foundation and apply conviction rules.
Separate impeachment from substantive use.
Rehabilitate only the attack made.

Trigger rule: Impeachment requires a defined credibility theory, a permitted method, and correct treatment of extrinsic evidence and substantive use.

Qualification, reliability, bases, and scope

Define specialized issue and helpfulness.
Qualify witness.
Identify data, method, and application.
Analyze reliability and fit.
Check basis disclosure and ultimate-issue limits.

Trigger rule: Expert evidence requires qualification, reliable methodology and application, sufficient data, and a helpful fit to the disputed issue.

Definition, nontruth use, verbal acts, and multiple layers

Identify declarant and exact statement.
State the proposition the evidence proves.
Ask whether truth is necessary.
Find exclusion or exception for every layer.
Then apply confrontation and authentication.

Trigger rule: Hearsay analysis isolates the human assertion and the proposition for which it is offered, then resolves each layer separately.

Opposing-party and prior witness statements

Identify party against whom offered.
Choose personal, adoptive, agency, employment, or conspiracy route.
Prove relationship and timing.
For prior witness statements, confirm testimony and cross-examination.

Trigger rule: Opposing-party statements are nonhearsay when the specified personal, adoptive, agency, employment, or conspiracy relationship is proved.

Former testimony, dying declarations, interest, and forfeiture

Prove unavailability.
Choose exact exception and timing.
Compare party, predecessor, opportunity, and motive.
Parse truly self-adverse portions.
For forfeiture, prove intent to silence.

Trigger rule: Unavailable-declarant exceptions require exact foundation, while forfeiture additionally demands intentional witness-silencing misconduct.

Spontaneous, condition, medical, records, and residual exceptions

Match every element of one exception.
For records, identify entrant, knowledge source, timing, routine, and foundation.
Analyze embedded statements separately.
Check untrustworthiness and criminal limitations.

Trigger rule: Every hearsay exception requires its exact timing or reliability foundation, and every layer in a record must independently qualify.

Testimonial hearsay in criminal cases

Is this criminal and offered against accused?
Identify declarant and testimonial character.
Determine unavailability and prior cross opportunity.
Test forfeiture.
Then finish hearsay analysis.

Trigger rule: Criminal testimonial hearsay requires present or prior cross-examination unless intentional forfeiture applies, independent of ordinary hearsay law.

Attorney-client, work product, marital, and related protection

Identify governing privilege law.
Name holder, participants, communication, purpose, and confidentiality.
Test waiver and scope.
Apply exceptions.
Distinguish privilege, work product, and ethics duties.

Trigger rule: Privilege requires a protected confidential relationship and purpose and can be lost through waiver or an applicable exception.

Authentication, original documents, notice, and presumptions

Identify exhibit and proposition.
Lay one concrete authentication route.
Ask whether content itself must be proved.
Find original, duplicate, or valid excuse.
State effect of notice or presumption.

Trigger rule: Documents require sufficient authentication, and an original or acceptable substitute is needed only when a party seeks to prove recorded contents.

Preserving error, preliminary questions, limiting instructions, and excluding witnesses

For a ruling admitting evidence, ask whether there was a timely objection with a specific ground.
For a ruling excluding evidence, ask whether an offer of proof told the court the substance.
For a preliminary question, decide whether the judge decides it alone or whether it is a question of conditional relevance for the jury.
For evidence admissible only for one purpose or against one party, ask whether a limiting instruction was requested.

Trigger rule: Say who decides the question, apply Rule 103 preservation rules, treat conditional relevance separately from admissibility questions decided by the judge, and address limiting instructions and sequestration.

Refreshing memory, recorded recollection, adopted statements, and hearsay within hearsay

Ask whether the writing is being used to jog memory or to be read as evidence.
If used to refresh, check the adverse party's rights to see it and use it on cross.
If offered as recorded recollection, check the three foundations and who is offering the exhibit.
For layered statements, identify each layer and match each to an exception or to a non-hearsay rule.

Trigger rule: Separate refreshing from recorded recollection, list the adverse party's rights, test each layer of multiple hearsay, and use the party-statement rules for adopted statements.

Sex-offense cases: the rape shield rule and similar-acts evidence

Identify whether the evidence concerns the victim's other sexual behavior or predisposition, and whether the case involves alleged sexual misconduct.
If so, see whether an exception in a criminal or civil case applies and whether the motion and in camera hearing requirements were met.
For evidence of the defendant's other acts, ask whether the charge is sexual assault or child molestation and whether notice was given 15 days before trial.
Check the definitions of victim, child, and sexual assault.

Trigger rule: Apply the Rule 412 prohibition, test each exception, note the motion and hearing procedure, then treat Rules 413 to 415 as separate rules on the defendant's other acts.

Privileges in federal court: general rule, psychotherapist, corporate attorney-client, and waiver

Determine whether federal or state privilege law governs, based on the source of the claim or defense in a civil case.
Identify the relationship: psychotherapist and patient, lawyer and client, or corporate employee and counsel.
For a corporate communication, ask whether it was made to obtain legal advice for the corporation and concerned the employee's duties.
For a disclosure, test intent, subject matter, fairness and inadvertence rules under Rule 502.

Trigger rule: Say what law governs privilege, identify the relationship, apply the case that defines the privilege, and then address waiver under Rule 502.

Authentication, self-authenticating documents, and the original-writing rule

Ask what the proponent claims the item is and what evidence supports that claim.
Check whether the item is self-authenticating, such as a sealed public document or a newspaper.
If the party is proving the content of a writing, recording or photograph, ask whether the original is required and whether a duplicate or other evidence of content is allowed.
For a summary of voluminous records, check that the underlying materials were made available.

Trigger rule: Say what the proponent must show, identify the authentication method, check for self-authentication, and then apply the original-writing rule and its exceptions.

The Confrontation Clause: testimonial statements, emergency questioning, forensic reports, and codefendant confessions

Decide whether the statement is hearsay offered against the accused in a criminal case.
Ask whether it is testimonial by its primary purpose, looking at the circumstances objectively.
If testimonial, check whether the declarant is unavailable and whether there was a prior chance to cross-examine.
For forensic reports, identify who made the certification and whether that person testifies.
If the statement is nontestimonial, apply the ordinary rules of evidence.

Trigger rule: State the Crawford rule, classify the statement by its primary purpose, and apply the requirements of unavailability and prior cross-examination if it is testimonial.

Public records, learned treatises, character reputation, statements against interest, forfeiture, and rules on insurance, judges, jurors, and religion

Identify the exception or rule that fits the proffered statement or evidence.
For a public record, check the category and whether the opponent shows a lack of trustworthiness.
For a treatise, check the expert connection and the reliable-authority showing.
For a statement against interest, check unavailability and corroboration in a criminal case.
For a juror or judge, apply the competency rules and their exceptions.

Trigger rule: Identify the exception or rule, state its conditions, and apply them to the facts, noting who may testify and any required foundation.

Expert reliability (Rule 702, Daubert, Joiner, Kumho), judicial notice (Rule 201), and the spousal testimonial privilege (Trammel)

For expert testimony, identify the four conditions of Rule 702 and who has the burden.
Ask whether the expert used reliable methods and applied them reliably to the facts.
Consider whether the Daubert factors fit this kind of expert, remembering they are flexible.
For judicial notice, ask whether the fact is beyond reasonable dispute and how the jury must be instructed.
For spousal testimony, ask who holds the privilege in a federal criminal case.

Trigger rule: State the Rule 702 conditions and the Daubert factors and apply them, or state the judicial notice standard and the jury instruction, or identify the holder of the privilege.

ONE-SHEET 06

Real Property

Full outline →

Present estates and defeasible fees

Quote operative language.
Name present estate.
Name each future interest and holder.
State automatic or elective termination.
Analyze transfer and waste.

Trigger rule: Conditional language creates a determinable fee, condition-subsequent fee, or executory limitation depending on who takes and whether termination is automatic.

Remainders, executory interests, reversions, and RAP

Write the full timeline.
Classify every interest.
Separate precedent conditions from later divestment.
For RAP, identify covered interest and validating life.
Check statutory reform if supplied.

Trigger rule: Future-interest analysis requires exact classification before asking whether a covered interest must vest or fail within the perpetuities period.

Cotenancies, severance, accounting, and partition

Identify creation language and unities.
Track every transfer and lien.
Analyze possession, ouster, rent, costs, and improvements.
Select partition remedy and accounting.

Trigger rule: Cotenancy analysis tracks creation, survivorship, severance, possession, accounting, creditors, and partition.

Tenancies, possession, rent, assignment, and sublease

Classify tenancy and writing requirement.
Determine possession and rent breach.
Compare transferred time with remaining term.
Identify contract and estate privity.
Address consent, surrender, and mitigation.

Trigger rule: Lease transfers are classified by whether the entire remaining term passed, which determines privity and liability regardless of labels.

Habitability, quiet enjoyment, tort duties, and waste

Identify residential or commercial setting.
Name duty and notice requirement.
Match breach to remedy and vacation requirement.
For injury, choose landlord-duty exception.
Check tenant fault and waiver limits.

Trigger rule: Condition disputes require separate habitability, quiet-enjoyment, tort-duty, and waste analyses with their own notice and remedies.

Marketable title, equitable conversion, casualty, and disclosure

Identify closing date and time clause.
List title defects and cure options.
Choose casualty-risk rule.
Analyze disclosure and merger.
State both parties' remedies.

Trigger rule: Land-sale analysis covers marketable title at closing, cure, casualty allocation, disclosure, equitable conversion, and transaction remedies.

Execution, delivery, acceptance, and covenants

Test execution and description.
Find present delivery intent and escrow conditions.
Identify acceptance.
Classify deed and covenant.
State present or future breach timing.

Trigger rule: A deed transfers through proper execution and present-intent delivery, while its form determines title covenants and breach timing.

Notice, race, race-notice, and chain of title

Translate statutory words.
Chronologically list conveyances and recordings.
For each later taker, test value and three notice forms.
Apply first-record requirement.
Check wild deeds and shelter.

Trigger rule: Recording priority follows the statute word for word through value, actual, record, and inquiry notice, timing, and recordation.

Debt, transfer, priority, foreclosure, and redemption

Identify note, mortgage, recording, and transfers.
Classify subject-to or assumption.
Rank every lien.
Check foreclosure parties and notice.
Distribute proceeds and address deficiency and redemption.

Trigger rule: Mortgage problems require separate treatment of the debt, land security, transfer liability, priority, foreclosure, proceeds, and redemption.

Creation, scope, transfer, and termination

Identify dominant and servient parcels.
Choose creation theory and timing.
Define permitted scope and overburden.
Trace transfer.
Test termination.

Trigger rule: Easement analysis requires valid creation, defined scope, successor transfer, and a recognized termination event.

Real covenants, equitable servitudes, and common plans

Quote promise and identify remedy.
Analyze benefit and burden separately.
Apply writing, intent, notice, privity, and land relation.
For subdivision, prove plan and notice.
Apply equitable defenses.

Trigger rule: Successor liability for land promises depends on the legal or equitable covenant elements and the exact remedy sought.

Adverse possession, nuisance, support, water, and fixtures

Choose doctrine matching the dispute.
For adverse possession, mark start, continuity, privity, and disability.
For nuisance, assess severity, locality, utility, sensitivity, and remedy.
For support or water, identify regime.
For fixtures, identify relationship and removal timing.

Trigger rule: Property-use disputes require precise classification: adverse possession for title, nuisance for interference, support and water for resource rights, and fixtures for annexed property.

Zoning, variances, nonconforming uses, and takings

Identify regulation, parcel, and relief.
Apply zoning authority and variance or nonconforming-use rule.
Choose precise takings category.
Determine public use and compensation.
Separate due process and equal protection.

Trigger rule: Land-use regulation is generally valid but subject to variance, vested-use, public-use, compensation, and regulatory-takings limits.

Survivorship, class gifts, and common-law rules that affect future interests

Read the instrument for any survival condition and note the moment at which survival is measured.
If a named beneficiary died first, check the anti-lapse statute, who qualifies as a transferee, and whether the instrument shows a contrary intention.
If a gift fails, follow the order of the statute: alternative disposition, residue, other class or future-interest members, then intestacy.
For archaic language, ask whether the jurisdiction abolished the fee tail, worthier title or Shelley's case.

Trigger rule: Identify whether survival is required, apply the anti-lapse or failure-of-transfer rule in order, and note any old-law doctrine the question abolishes or preserves.

The Rule Against Perpetuities: common-law rule, exclusions, and statutory reform

Decide first whether the interest is nonvested and whether the rule applies to it, given the exclusions for commercial and charitable interests.
Under a common-law question, list the lives in being at creation and look for any possible chain of events that could vest the interest too late.
Under a statutory question, test the 21-years-after-a-life alternative and the 90-year wait-and-see alternative.
If the interest would fail, ask whether the jurisdiction provides for reformation and how it would rewrite the gift.

Trigger rule: State whether the rule applies, identify the measuring lives, run the common-law test, then apply the statutory wait-and-see and reformation provisions and any exclusion.

Ending a tenancy: notice, abandonment, mitigation, deposits, and retaliation

Identify the type of tenancy and the notice the statute or lease requires to end it.
If the tenant left early, ask whether the landlord reasonably tried to relet and what the tenant can prove was avoidable.
For a deposit, check the cap, the time to return, the itemized statement, and any bad-faith consequence.
For a tenant's self-help remedy or a landlord's eviction, check whether the statute allows it and whether retaliation or self-help bars it.

Trigger rule: State how the tenancy ended, apply the statute's notice and remedy rules, address mitigation and deposit duties, and check for retaliation, self-help, or entry violations.

Fair housing, discrimination, and conflicts of law in land disputes

Identify the protected class and the act complained of: refusal, terms, advertisement, false unavailability, or blockbusting.
Check the statutory exemptions and note that they do not cover advertising and do not affect Section 1982 as to race.
For handicap, ask whether the request is a reasonable accommodation or modification and who pays.
For land in another state, choose the law of the situs for title and note what an out-of-state decree can and cannot do.

Trigger rule: Identify the statute that applies, note the exemption and its limits, then apply the accommodation or advertising rule, and separate Section 1982 and constitutional theories.

Licenses, profits, and how easements arise, are limited, and end

Classify the right: an easement, a profit, or a license, and note whether it is appurtenant or in gross.
Ask how it was created and whether a required writing exists or an exception such as estoppel or prescription applies.
Measure the scope by the grant or the historic use and test whether the current use overburdens the servient land.
Check for termination by merger, abandonment, incompatible acts, disuse, or the end of necessity.

Trigger rule: Identify the interest, say how it was created and what writing or exception applies, state the scope of use, and address termination.

Property owners' associations and common interest communities

Confirm that the community exists by a recorded declaration and that the restriction is in it, not in a later rule alone.
Apply the presumption of validity and ask whether the restriction is arbitrary, discriminatory, or so burdensome as to be unreasonable for every owner.
For enforcement, identify who may sue, what relief is sought, and whether fees shift to the prevailing party.
For money disputes, find the assessment's due date, the late charge and interest limits, and who bears repair duties.

Trigger rule: Identify the common interest community and the source of the restriction, apply the presumption of validity and the reasonableness limits, and address enforcement, assessments and fees.

Real estate brokerage: licensing, listing agreements, commissions, and broker duties

Decide whether the person acted as a broker and, if so, whether the person was licensed when the claim arose.
Check whether the listing or commission agreement is in a signed writing that satisfies the statute of frauds.
Determine when the commission was earned under the jurisdiction's rule, and whether the seller wrongfully caused any failure to close.
For a buyer's claim, ask whether the broker inspected and disclosed what a diligent visual inspection would have revealed.

Trigger rule: Say whether the person needed a license and had one, whether a writing supports the commission, when the commission was earned, and what duties the broker owed the buyer.

Contracts for the sale of land: writing, part performance, time, and remedies

Test the writing for signature by the party to be charged, the property, the parties, and the consideration, and check any agent's written authority.
If the writing fails, ask whether part performance, estoppel, or another exception lets a court enforce the contract in equity.
Identify the time for performance, whether a date was fixed, and whether delay was reasonable.
Choose the remedy: specific performance, damages under the statutory formula, or retention of a deposit as liquidated damages.

Trigger rule: State the writing requirement and who must sign, apply any exception, set the time for performance, and finish with the remedy formula and any liquidated damages limits.

Options, rights of first refusal, merger by deed, and implied warranties in new homes

Classify the right as an option or a right of first refusal by asking whether the holder can force a sale or only receive the first offer.
Test the right against the rule against perpetuities where the jurisdiction applies it, and against any statute limiting recorded options.
For claims after closing, ask whether the promise merged into the deed or is collateral and intended to survive.
For a new home, consider an implied warranty of quality, notice of breach, and any statutory construction standards.

Trigger rule: Say whether the right is an option or a right of first refusal, identify when it can be exercised, test it against perpetuities and recording statutes, and address merger or an implied warranty when the facts involve a closing or a new home.

Security devices: mortgages, deeds of trust, installment contracts, and deeds absolute

Identify the device and its parties: mortgage, deed of trust with trustee, or installment contract with vendor and vendee.
Determine which title theory the jurisdiction follows if title matters to the question.
If a deed absolute in form was given for a loan, look for evidence of intent to secure a debt and apply the clear-and-convincing standard.
Check whether an anti-deficiency rule protects the borrower because the loan was purchase money or the sale was nonjudicial.

Trigger rule: Name the security device, state the title theory, test for recharacterization of an absolute deed, and address anti-deficiency and redemption protections.

Mortgage transfers, discharge, foreclosure procedure, deficiencies, and redemption

Identify the transfer or default and ask whether the lender may invoke a due-on-sale clause or an exception applies.
Decide whether the transferee assumed the debt in the required writing or took only subject to the mortgage.
Trace the foreclosure steps the statute requires, and check that junior lienholders were joined to be cut off.
Compute any deficiency or surplus, note anti-deficiency limits, and address redemption before and after sale.

Trigger rule: Say what transfer occurred and whether the due-on-sale clause is enforceable, whether the transferee assumed, how foreclosure proceeded, and what deficiency, surplus or redemption rights follow.

Transfers at death and by operation of law: wills, intestacy, ademption, exoneration, and lapse

Verify that the instrument is a valid will, or fall back to intestacy if it is not.
For a specific gift, ask whether the property was still owned at death and whether a statute preserves the proceeds.
For a gift of encumbered property, ask whether the will or a statute lets the devisee claim payoff of the lien from the estate.
If the devisee died first, apply the anti-lapse statute in the jurisdiction and check whether the will's language excludes it.

Trigger rule: Establish the valid instrument, identify the type of gift, apply ademption, exoneration or lapse in turn, and check whether a statute changes the common-law result.

Title assurance: recording statutes, constructive notice, liens, title insurance, and estoppel by deed

Identify which recording statute governs, and test each purchaser for value, notice, and order of recording.
Search the chain of title for constructive notice from recorded instruments, including a recorded lis pendens.
For liens, find the recording or filing that created the lien and whether it preceded the purchase.
Ask whether title insurance, estoppel by deed, or another doctrine cures a defect that the search did not.

Trigger rule: Name the recording statute, apply its elements to each purchaser, add constructive notice from the record and liens, and then consider title insurance or estoppel by deed.

Adverse possession in depth: elements, mistaken boundaries, tacking, color of title, and taxes

List each element and match it to the facts, including the statutory period and any extra state requirements such as taxes.
If the possessor made a mistake about the boundary, identify whether the jurisdiction follows the Maine or Connecticut view.
For a small encroachment, ask whether the owner had actual knowledge and consider equitable relief.
If more than one possessor is involved, test privity for tacking and the continuity of use.

Trigger rule: Apply each element and the statutory period, address hostility and the mistake, discuss notice for small encroachments and tacking, and finish with statutory conditions such as taxes and public land.

Leases: consent to assignment, the warranty of habitability, constructive eviction, and self-help

Identify the lease type and jurisdiction, since the assignment consent rule is a split of authority.
For a habitability claim, identify the housing code or statute and the landlord's notice and repair duties.
For constructive eviction, look for a substantial landlord-caused deprivation and a timely move-out.
For a landlord's removal of a tenant, ask whether the landlord followed judicial procedure or used self-help.
State the remedies: possession, termination, damages, and any defense to rent.

Trigger rule: Identify the doctrine, state the split of authority or statute, and apply it to the landlord's and tenant's conduct, including timing and remedies.

Easements implied from prior use, easements by necessity, and easements by estoppel

Ask whether a common owner once held both parcels and then severed them.
For prior use, look for an obvious, long-continued, permanent use that is reasonably necessary to fair enjoyment.
For necessity, ask whether access was necessary and not merely convenient at the time of severance.
For prescription, check for adverse, open, continuous use for the full period without permission.
For estoppel, look for the owner's permission and the user's substantial reliance.

Trigger rule: Identify the type of easement claimed, state its elements, and apply them to the facts, noting the time at which necessity is judged and whether the use was permissive.

Power-of-sale foreclosure, deficiency defenses, surplus, registration of conveyances, and seller disclosure (North Carolina statutes)

For a power-of-sale foreclosure, confirm the notice, the 10-day service period, and the four findings the clerk must make.
Apply the proceeds in the statutory order and identify who receives any surplus.
For a deficiency claim, ask whether the lender bought at the sale and whether the mortgage secured purchase money.
For priority, check whether and when each instrument was registered and whether it was properly acknowledged.
For seller disclosure, ask whether the seller knew of a material, hidden defect.

Trigger rule: Trace the foreclosure steps, apply the proceeds and surplus rules, address deficiency defenses and the purchase-money bar, and finish with registration and priority questions.

Cotenancy: mortgages and leases by one joint tenant, rent and ouster, contribution, and partition

Identify the type of co-ownership and whether any of the four unities was destroyed.
For a mortgage or lease by one joint tenant, ask whether the grantor died first and what the survivor takes.
For a rent claim, look for an agreement to pay rent or a refusal of the other cotenants' demand to share possession.
For costs, apply the contribution statute for carrying costs and improvements.
For partition, ask whether division in kind is possible without substantial injury.

Trigger rule: Classify the co-ownership, decide whether any act severed it, apply the survivorship, rent, contribution, and partition rules, and state the result.

ONE-SHEET 07

Torts

Full outline →

Intent, battery, assault, and transferred intent

Identify actor's purpose or substantial certainty.
Name protected interest and every element.
Test imminence and apparent ability for assault.
Apply transferred intent and damages.

Trigger rule: Intent means purpose or substantial certainty, and qualifying intent can transfer among the traditional trespassory torts.

Confinement, emotional distress, and property torts

Identify protected interest and possession.
For confinement, map boundaries and escape.
For IIED, assess conduct, culpability, severity, and causation.
For chattels, distinguish actual damage from serious dominion.

Trigger rule: Intentional tort classification follows the protected interest and seriousness of interference, not a generic label of wrongdoing.

Consent, self-defense, property defense, necessity, and authority

Identify triggering threat or permission.
Classify force or invasion.
Test subjective and objective reasonableness.
Check scope and mistake.
State complete or incomplete defense and damages.

Trigger rule: Privileges require consent or reasonable necessity within scope and often determine both liability and whether damages remain payable.

Duty and the reasonable person

Identify conduct and foreseeable zone.
Choose general, child, professional, or statutory standard.
State breach facts separately.
Then complete cause and damages.

Trigger rule: Negligence duty uses reasonable care tailored by recognized child, physical-disability, professional, and safety-statute doctrines.

Omissions, rescue, relationships, land entrants, and emotional harm

Start with general no-duty rule for omission.
Identify creation, undertaking, relationship, or premises source.
Classify entrant and jurisdictional approach.
For emotional harm, choose direct-risk, bystander, or special-case route.

Trigger rule: Affirmative duties arise from risk creation, undertaking, relationship, control, premises status, or a recognized emotional-harm category.

Risk balancing, custom, res ipsa, and multiple actors

State the untaken precaution.
Compare risk and burden using facts.
Use custom or statute as evidence where appropriate.
If no direct proof, test every res ipsa element.
Address allocation among multiple actors.

Trigger rule: Breach requires a specific unreasonable precaution failure or a justified circumstantial inference such as res ipsa loquitur.

Actual cause, multiple causes, and loss of chance

Identify exact injury and counterfactual.
Test but-for cause.
If overdetermined, use multiple-sufficient-cause analysis.
Consider burden-shifting doctrines.
Keep actual and proximate cause separate.

Trigger rule: Actual causation normally uses but-for analysis but adapts for multiple sufficient causes and narrowly defined uncertainty doctrines.

Proximate cause, intervening forces, and eggshell injuries

Define risks that made conduct negligent.
Match actual harm to those risks.
Classify intervention as responsive, coincidental, intentional, or extraordinary.
Apply eggshell only to extent, not type.
Analyze each plaintiff separately.

Trigger rule: Proximate cause covers harms within the negligent risk, ordinarily including rescue and medical response, and takes a physically vulnerable plaintiff as found.

Compensatory damages, mitigation, comparative fault, and assumption of risk

List each past and future loss.
Prove cause and certainty.
Identify mitigation opportunity.
Choose fault regime and allocate percentages.
Analyze express and implied risk separately.

Trigger rule: Tort damages compensate caused and reasonably certain loss, reduced by avoidable consequences and the jurisdiction's comparative-fault and risk rules.

Vicarious liability, independent contractors, and contribution

Classify employee or contractor.
Identify tort and scope factors.
Test contractor exceptions and direct negligence.
Allocate joint liability, contribution, and indemnity.

Trigger rule: Vicarious liability depends on worker status and scope, while independent-contractor exceptions and direct employer negligence require separate analysis.

Animals and abnormally dangerous activities

Classify animal or activity.
Identify characteristic danger and knowledge if required.
Apply all activity factors.
Connect harm to the strict-liability risk.
Address defenses and damages.

Trigger rule: Strict liability covers characteristic animal or abnormally dangerous risks but still requires legal causation and harm within the reason for strict treatment.

Manufacturing, design, warning, warranty, and defenses

Identify product, claimant, and each seller.
Choose manufacturing, design, or warning theory.
State test and defect evidence.
Prove control-time defect and foreseeable use.
Analyze cause, alteration, and defenses.

Trigger rule: Products liability requires a specific defect theory, commercial supplier, defect at distribution, foreseeable use, causation, and applicable defenses.

Defamation, privileges, and privacy torts

Identify exact statement or conduct and audience.
Separate fact from protected opinion using context and verifiability.
Classify plaintiff and public concern.
Choose fault and damage rules.
Apply privilege or privacy elements.

Trigger rule: Defamation analysis proceeds through factual meaning, publication, plaintiff status, public concern, constitutional fault, damages, and privilege.

Nuisance, misrepresentation, and interference

Identify protected land or economic interest.
State exact false statement or interference.
For nuisance, weigh gravity and utility and choose remedy.
For misrepresentation, prove state of mind and reliance.
For interference, analyze privilege and impropriety.

Trigger rule: Nuisance and economic torts require their own protected interest, culpability, cause, reliance or interference, defenses, and tailored remedy.

Unforeseeable plaintiffs and duties to control third parties

Ask first whether the plaintiff was within the range of foreseeable harm from the defendant's conduct.
If a third person caused the harm, look for a special relationship with the wrongdoer or with the victim.
Check for a dram shop, social host, or parental-liability statute before applying common-law duty.
Test the scope of any duty: was the danger serious, and was the victim identified or readily identifiable?

Trigger rule: State the general rule that no duty exists to control another, name the special relationship or statute that supplies one, then apply foreseeability and the seriousness of the danger to this plaintiff.

Owners and occupiers of land

Identify who was hurt, why the person was on the land, and whether the jurisdiction keeps the entrant categories.
State the duty owed to that category, or ordinary reasonable care if the jurisdiction abandoned the categories.
If the plaintiff is a child trespasser, test each element of the attractive nuisance doctrine.
Check for a recreational-use statute and for its exceptions before applying the common-law duty.

Trigger rule: Name the plaintiff's entrant category, state the traditional duty owed, note whether the jurisdiction follows Rowland, and apply the attractive nuisance or recreational-use rule where the facts call for it.

Emotional distress, wrongful death, survival, and loss of consortium

Identify the claim: distress alone, death of the victim, or loss of a relationship after a nonfatal injury.
For bystander distress, apply the jurisdiction's test: zone of danger, Dillon foreseeability, or Thing's three requirements.
For a death, separate the survivors' wrongful death claim from the decedent's survival claim, and note who owns each.
For consortium, ask who was hurt, who is suing, and whether the jurisdiction recognizes that relationship.

Trigger rule: Identify the type of claim, state the jurisdiction's test or the statute, and apply each requirement to the plaintiff's location, awareness, and relationship to the victim.

Pure economic loss and negligent misrepresentation to third parties

Ask whether the plaintiff's loss is purely financial, or whether it flows from injury to the plaintiff's own person or property.
If the plaintiff and defendant had a contract, consider whether the claim is really warranty or contract rather than tort.
For a stranger to the contract, test the special relationship factors, and note whether the jurisdiction adopts them.
For a misstatement, identify the approach in force: near-privity, section 552, or foreseeability, and ask whether the plaintiff was in the intended group.

Trigger rule: Classify the loss as economic or physical, state the general no-recovery rule, then argue whether a contract, warranty, or special-relationship or section 552 exception applies.

Joint and several liability, contribution, indemnity, and settlement

Reduce the plaintiff's damages by her own percentage of fault before any allocation among defendants.
Decide whether the jurisdiction uses joint and several liability, several liability, or a hybrid that treats economic and non-economic damages differently.
Compute each defendant's share and any contribution claim from the amount actually paid.
For a settlement, identify whether the release was in good faith, which credit rule applies, and whether contribution against the settling party is barred.

Trigger rule: Reduce damages by the plaintiff's fault, state whether liability is joint and several, allocate shares for contribution, and account for any settlement credit and good-faith bar.

Contributory negligence, last clear chance, and comparative fault variants

Identify the fault regime the question states or the jurisdiction uses before doing any arithmetic.
Find the plaintiff's percentage of fault and compare it with the threshold, or with the defendants' combined fault where the statute says so.
Check whether last clear chance is needed, which it is only in a contributory negligence jurisdiction.
Separate express waivers, primary assumption of risk that defeats duty, and secondary assumption that reduces damages.

Trigger rule: Name the regime, apply the plaintiff's percentage of fault to the threshold, state the reduced recovery if any, and consider last clear chance and assumption of risk as separate doctrines.

Products liability: design tests, warranty theories, and federal preemption

Choose the theory: negligence, strict liability in tort, or a UCC warranty, and note that each has different elements and defendants.
For design defect, apply the consumer expectations test and the risk-benefit test and note who bears the burden.
For warranty, identify the type, whether it was effectively disclaimed under section 2-316, and whether the plaintiff is within the state's version of section 2-318.
For drugs, devices and vaccines, ask whether a federal statute preempts the state claim before analyzing the defect.

Trigger rule: State the theory the facts fit, give the elements or the test, apply the section 2-316 disclaimer and section 2-318 beneficiary rules for a warranty claim, and check federal preemption for drug and device cases.

Defamation and the First Amendment: public figures, opinion, and privileges

Classify the plaintiff as an official, a public figure for all purposes, a limited-purpose public figure, or a private figure.
Decide whether the statement concerns a matter of public concern and whether it can be proved false.
Apply the fault standard the classification requires and identify the burden and the level of proof.
Check for an absolute or qualified privilege and for a retraction or special-damages statute.

Trigger rule: Classify the plaintiff, state the fault and burden rules the classification requires, decide whether the statement is provable as false, and end with privilege or damages rules.

Privacy torts, false light, and the right of publicity

Name which of the four privacy claims is at issue and state its elements.
Ask whether the information came from a public record or was lawfully obtained and whether it concerns a public matter.
For false light or a false report, ask whether the matter is of public interest and whether the defendant acted with knowledge or reckless disregard.
For commercial use, check the consent requirement and the exception for news, public affairs and political uses.

Trigger rule: Identify the privacy claim, state its elements or the statutory rule, then test the constitutional limits: public record, lawful acquisition, public concern, and actual malice for false reports.

Interference with business relations, malicious prosecution, and abuse of process

Identify the plaintiff's interest: an existing contract, a business expectancy, or freedom from a baseless or misused lawsuit.
For interference, check knowledge, intent to disrupt, a breach or disruption, damage, and for prospective advantage, a wrongful act.
For a lawsuit-based claim, ask whether the prior action ended in the plaintiff's favor and whether it was objectively tenable.
Separate malicious prosecution, which attacks the filing of a baseless suit, from abuse of process, which attacks the misuse of process for an improper end.

Trigger rule: Name the interference tort that fits, list its elements, apply them to each act of the defendant, and address any privilege for competition or any lawsuit-based limit on the claim.

Employee status, nondelegable duties, and statutory owner liability

Classify the actor as an employee or an independent contractor using the control factors, and note who supplied tools and how pay was set.
If an employee, ask whether the tort was within the scope of employment under the jurisdiction's test.
If a contractor, look for the hirer's own negligence, an inherently dangerous activity, or another nondelegable duty.
For vehicle owners, check whether a permissive-use statute applies and what cap it sets.

Trigger rule: Classify the worker, apply the scope test if an employee, and if a contractor, identify the hirer's own negligence or the nondelegable duty or statute that nonetheless makes the defendant liable.

Privileges of authority and necessity: arrest, merchants, family defense, and incomplete privilege

Identify who acted and what authority the law gives that person: officer, merchant, private citizen, owner, family member, or parent.
Check whether the facts satisfy the privilege's trigger, such as a public offense in the actor's presence or probable cause of theft.
Test the force and the duration: was it reasonable, nondeadly if property was the only interest, and no longer than needed?
For necessity, decide whether the harm avoided was public or private, then ask what damages the actor still owes.

Trigger rule: Name the privilege, state its trigger and limits, apply each to the actor's conduct, and finish with the damages the actor still owes if the privilege is incomplete.

Negligent infliction of emotional distress: bystander recovery, the zone-of-danger test, and the impact rule

Identify the jurisdiction's test: impact, zone of danger, or bystander.
For a bystander claim, check the family relationship, presence at the scene, and awareness of the injury as it occurs.
For a zone-of-danger claim, ask whether the plaintiff was in immediate risk of physical harm from the defendant's conduct.
Ask whether the plaintiff suffered emotional distress beyond that of a disinterested witness.
State the result and mention the alternative approach of another jurisdiction.

Trigger rule: Identify the test, list its elements, and apply them to the plaintiff's location, awareness, and relationship, noting where jurisdictions differ.

Duty to aid a companion, voluntary rescue, and fraudulent misrepresentation and concealment

For a duty to aid, look for a special relationship such as a common undertaking, and ask whether the defendant knew or should have known of the peril.
Ask whether the defendant could help without endangering himself.
If the defendant did aid the plaintiff, ask whether he used reasonable care.
For fraud, work through the five elements and ask whether the statement was fact or opinion.
For a seller's silence, ask whether the defect was known, material, and not readily observable.

Trigger rule: Identify whether a special relationship creates a duty, apply the reasonable-care standard for aid, and for a misrepresentation claim state the fraud elements and address fact versus opinion and concealment.

ONE-SHEET 08

Business Associations

Full outline →

Creation and actual authority

Identify principal, agent, task, and control.
Find every principal-to-agent manifestation.
State express and implied authority.
Track termination and agent notice.
Then analyze third-party protection separately.

Trigger rule: Agency arises from assent, acting on behalf, and control; actual authority follows the agent's reasonable interpretation of the principal's manifestations.

Apparent authority, estoppel, and ratification

Identify third party's exact information source.
Separate principal manifestations from agent assertions.
Assess reasonableness and detrimental change.
For ratification, test principal existence, capacity, knowledge, and whole-act affirmance.

Trigger rule: Apparent authority protects reasonable reliance on principal manifestations, while ratification binds through informed affirmance of the entire unauthorized act.

Contract liability and agent warranties

Identify authority route.
Classify principal disclosure at contracting.
Determine contractual parties.
If no authority, analyze warranty of authority and tort theories.

Trigger rule: Contract liability follows authority and the third party's knowledge of principal identity; an unauthorized agent can separately breach a warranty of authority.

Employee status and vicarious liability

Classify worker under control factors.
Identify tort and time, place, purpose, and authorization.
Distinguish detour from frolic.
Test contractor exceptions and direct negligence.

Trigger rule: Vicarious liability turns on employee status and scope, with separate contractor exceptions and direct principal negligence.

Care, loyalty, obedience, information, and remedies

Identify relationship and scope.
Name exact duty and challenged conduct.
Test disclosure and informed consent.
Trace loss or gain.
Select compensatory and restitutionary remedies.

Trigger rule: Agency fiduciary duties protect the principal from undisclosed conflicts and can support gain-based remedies without proof of loss.

Formation, property, management, and authority

Identify co-ownership, profit, control, and business.
Classify asset as partnership property.
Apply agreement then default vote.
Analyze actual and apparent partner authority.

Trigger rule: Partnership status follows co-owned profit-seeking conduct, after which entity property, default management, and partner agency rules apply.

Partner liability, duties, dissociation, and dissolution

Identify partnership obligation and authority.
Determine entity and personal liability.
Analyze duty and consent.
Classify dissociation and any wrongfulness.
State buyout, winding-up, and creditor effects.

Trigger rule: Partner departure requires separate analysis of wrongfulness, authority, buyout, dissolution, and continuing creditor protection.

Corporations, promoters, and preincorporation contracts

Check filing and legal existence date.
Identify promoter act and contract language.
Analyze promoter liability, corporate adoption, and novation separately.
Consider defective-formation doctrines.

Trigger rule: Preincorporation contracts can bind the promoter and later the adopting corporation, but only novation or original agreement ordinarily releases the promoter.

Shares, subscriptions, issuance, and veil piercing

Identify entity, shareholder, obligation, and capitalization.
Review articles and board action.
For veil piercing, prove domination plus misuse and causal injustice.
State which owner and which obligation are affected.

Trigger rule: Owners ordinarily have limited liability, but domination plus misuse causing fraud or injustice can justify piercing for a particular obligation.

Board, officers, shareholder voting, and distributions

Identify decision and actor with authority.
Check articles, bylaws, agreement, and statutory default.
Verify notice, quorum, vote, proxy, and class requirements.
For distribution, apply solvency and director protections.

Trigger rule: Corporate decisions require the correct actor and compliance with governing documents, notice, quorum, voting, and any shareholder or class approval.

Care, loyalty, business judgment, and oversight

Identify fiduciary, beneficiary, and decision.
Classify care, conflict, opportunity, oversight, or good-faith issue.
Determine disinterest, information, process, and cleansing.
Apply business judgment only after prerequisites.
State equitable and monetary remedies.

Trigger rule: Business judgment protects informed disinterested good-faith decisions, not undisclosed conflicts, usurped opportunities, bad faith, or conscious oversight failures.

Direct, derivative, and closely held claims

Ask who suffered primary injury and who receives recovery.
Classify direct or derivative.
Test contemporaneous and continuous ownership.
Apply demand and committee rules.
Address fees, settlement, and closely held remedies.

Trigger rule: Owner litigation classification turns on whose right was violated and who should receive recovery, followed by standing, demand, and judicial-control rules.

LLC governance and fundamental transactions

Identify entity form and management structure.
Read operating agreement and mandatory statute.
Determine actor authority and duties.
For structural change, list approvals, notice, filings, and appraisal.
Address successor liability and dissolution.

Trigger rule: LLC problems require management-structure and operating-agreement analysis; structural transactions add entity-specific approvals, filings, and owner remedies.

Director protections: exculpation, good-faith reliance, indemnification, advancement, and insurance (Delaware)

Identify whether the proceeding is a third-party action or an action by or in the right of the corporation.
Apply the good-faith standard, and for criminal proceedings the no-reasonable-cause standard.
Ask whether the person was successful on the merits or otherwise, which makes indemnification mandatory for directors and officers.
Identify who determines eligibility, and whether advancement requires an undertaking to repay.

Trigger rule: Say whether the suit is a third-party or derivative action, apply the good-faith standard, address mandatory indemnification for success, then who decides, advancement, and insurance.

Stockholder meetings, voting, proxies, written consent, and removal or replacement of directors (Delaware)

Identify the default rule and check whether the certificate or bylaws change it.
For a vote, determine whether the matter is an election of directors (plurality) or another matter (majority of shares present and entitled to vote).
For a proxy, check its date and whether it is expressly irrevocable and coupled with an interest.
For removal, check whether the board is classified or the corporation uses cumulative voting.

Trigger rule: Start with the default quorum and voting rules, then adjust for charter or bylaw changes, then treat proxies, written consent, and director removal and vacancies.

Mergers, sales of substantially all assets, dissolution, and appraisal rights (Delaware)

Identify the transaction (merger, asset sale, dissolution) and the board and stockholder approvals it needs.
Check the notice period of 20 days for the vote on a merger or asset sale.
For a dissenting stockholder, check that the stockholder did not vote for the deal and made the demand on time.
Test the market exception and its exception for consideration other than stock or cash in lieu of fractions.

Trigger rule: State the approvals needed, then evaluate whether a dissenter has appraisal rights, working through the market exception and its cash exception.

Purported partners, partner agency, and partner liability (Delaware Revised Uniform Partnership Act)

Decide first whether an actual partnership exists, then whether the person is only a purported partner.
For a purported partner, find the words or conduct, the consent, and the third party's reliance.
Ask whether the representation was made publicly, which removes the need to show the claimant was told directly.
For a partnership contract, ask whether the act was apparently in the ordinary course of the partnership's business.
Check whether the person joined after the obligation arose, and check the status of any limited liability partnership.

Trigger rule: Identify whether a partnership exists, then apply the purported-partner section: words or conduct, consent, reliance, and the public-manner rule, and state the resulting liability.

Limited liability companies: formation, operating agreements, management, member liability, and fiduciary duties (Delaware)

Confirm the certificate of formation was filed, and note the effective time.
Look for an operating agreement, remembering that it may be oral or implied.
Decide whether the company is member-managed or manager-managed under the agreement and the statutory default.
Ask whether any member is personally liable, which requires a separate basis.
For duties, check whether the agreement modified fiduciary duties and whether it respects the implied covenant of good faith.

Trigger rule: State how the company was formed, identify the operating agreement and its terms or the statutory defaults, and apply the management, authority, liability, and duty rules.

Corporate charters, bylaws, board procedure, staggered boards, cumulative voting, and stockholder voting agreements (Delaware)

Identify the source of the rule: the statute, the certificate of incorporation, the bylaws, or a stockholder agreement.
If the certificate and a bylaw conflict, the bylaw must yield.
For a board action, check quorum and vote, or whether a unanimous written consent was used.
For a staggered board, check that the classes and terms were created by the certificate or a proper bylaw.
For voting arrangements, check that a written agreement exists and that cumulative voting appears in the certificate.

Trigger rule: Identify the governing source, apply the quorum and vote rules, and address any conflict between the certificate and the bylaws or any special voting arrangement.

Promoters, preincorporation contracts, de facto corporations, and corporation by estoppel

Identify when the corporation was formed and whether the contract was signed before that time.
Ask who dealt with the other party and whether the other party agreed to look only to the corporation.
If the corporation did not exist, check whether the jurisdiction recognizes de facto or estoppel doctrines or has a statute displacing them.
For de facto status, look for a bona fide attempt to organize and an actual exercise of corporate powers.
Separately ask whether any shareholder became personally liable by his own acts.

Trigger rule: State the general rule of promoter liability and its exception, decide whether the corporation existed de jure, de facto, or by estoppel under the governing law, and address any shareholder liability.

Director and officer duties, conflict-of-interest transactions, and unlawful distributions under the North Carolina Business Corporation Act

Identify whether the person is a director or an officer with discretionary authority and state the three-part standard.
Ask whether the person relied on a source the statute allows and whether the person actually knew something that made reliance unwarranted.
If a director has a personal interest in a transaction, test each of the three ways to save it: disinterested board approval, disinterested shareholder approval, and fairness.
For a dividend or repurchase, apply both the inability-to-pay-debts test and the assets-less-than-liabilities test as of the date the effect is measured.
Identify who is liable for an unlawful distribution, the contribution and reimbursement rights, and the three-year limit.
For a suit on behalf of the corporation, check demand, the 90-day wait, and standing.

Trigger rule: State the director's standard and the reliance rule, test the conflict-of-interest transaction under the three safe harbors, and apply the distribution limits and the liability, contribution, and reimbursement rules.

North Carolina limited liability company management, standards of conduct, distributions, derivative actions, and dissolution

Read the operating agreement first, because the statute supplies default rules that the agreement may change.
Decide who the managers are: all members by default, or those designated in the agreement.
Apply the majority-of-managers rule and the rule that each manager may act in the ordinary course.
State the manager's standard of conduct and check reliance, and separately check any modification in the operating agreement.
Ask whether any member or manager is personally liable to third parties, which is not so by status alone.
For a distribution, apply both the inability-to-pay test and the liabilities-exceed-assets test.
For a derivative claim check membership at the time of the act, written demand, and the 90 days.
For dissolution, ask whether it is not practicable to conduct the business under the agreement or whether liquidation protects the member.

Trigger rule: Identify who manages the LLC and which decisions the majority controls, state the standard of conduct and its limits, decide whether members are liable to third parties, apply the distribution limits and the liability of the approving managers, and address derivative suits and dissolution as raised.

ONE-SHEET 09

Family Law

Full outline →

Validity, common-law marriage, and annulment

Identify jurisdiction and formation date.
Test capacity, consent, and formalities.
Classify void, voidable, or valid.
Analyze recognition, defenses, and economic consequences.

Trigger rule: Marriage validity turns on capacity, consent, formal law, and recognition, not relationship duration or personal labels alone.

Formation, disclosure, fairness, and modification

Identify agreement type and governing act.
Check writing, signature, marriage, disclosure, and waiver.
Analyze voluntariness at execution.
Classify each term and public-policy limit.
Assess unconscionability at the legally relevant time.

Trigger rule: Premarital agreements require formal execution, voluntary assent, adequate financial knowledge or waiver, and terms within family-law public policy.

Divorce jurisdiction, domicile, recognition, and procedure

Identify each spouse's domicile.
Separate status, property, support, and custody jurisdiction.
Confirm service and personal jurisdiction.
Analyze recognition and any collateral attack.
Apply statutory ground and waiting period.

Trigger rule: Divorce jurisdiction must separate power over marital status from personal obligations, property, custody, and interstate recognition.

Classification, valuation, distribution, and debt

Inventory every asset and debt.
Classify and trace source and transformation.
Choose valuation date and method.
Apply distribution factors.
Plan transfer, tax, security, and enforcement.

Trigger rule: Property division requires asset-by-asset classification, tracing, valuation, factor-based allocation, and enforceable implementation.

Entitlement, amount, duration, modification, and termination

Identify support type and legal standard.
Find need, ability, earning capacity, and duration facts.
Coordinate property division and tax treatment.
For modification, compare current facts and decree language.
Apply termination and enforcement rules.

Trigger rule: Spousal support requires type-specific factor analysis and careful treatment of modification, termination, security, and enforcement.

Presumptions, assisted reproduction, and parentage actions

Identify every possible parent and legal route.
Apply presumption, acknowledgment, adjudication, and time limits.
Use genetic evidence within statutory rules.
Analyze consent or intent for assisted reproduction.
State consequences and constitutional protection.

Trigger rule: Parentage can arise from presumption, acknowledgment, adjudication, genetics, consent, or intent and carries constitutional and financial consequences.

Guidelines, income, modification, enforcement, and interstate rules

Establish legal parentage.
Calculate guideline income and credits.
Analyze deviation with findings.
For modification, identify change, filing date, and order terms.
Apply arrears and UIFSA enforcement.

Trigger rule: Child support follows guideline calculation, justified deviation, prospective modification, protection of arrears, and interstate enforcement.

Best interests, parenting plans, and constitutional limits

Identify each requested form of custody.
Apply every statutory factor with facts both ways.
Address safety before ordinary cooperation.
Respect fit-parent constitutional priority.
Draft a workable child-centered plan.

Trigger rule: Custody requires factor-based child-centered analysis constrained by fit-parent constitutional rights and concrete safety and implementation planning.

Modification, relocation, enforcement, and parental kidnapping

Identify existing order and issuing state.
Apply modification threshold and factors.
For relocation, analyze purpose, effect, alternatives, and logistics.
Choose enforcement remedy.
Assess abduction risk and federal overlay.

Trigger rule: Custody modification and relocation require threshold, child-impact, feasibility, safety, and interstate-enforcement analysis.

UCCJEA jurisdiction and enforcement

Build a six-month residence timeline.
Identify first valid custody commencement.
Test exclusive continuing jurisdiction.
Distinguish initial, modification, emergency, and enforcement power.
Address unjustifiable conduct and court communication.

Trigger rule: UCCJEA analysis requires a residence timeline and separation of initial, continuing, modification, emergency, and enforcement jurisdiction.

UIFSA jurisdiction, continuing authority, and enforcement

Identify every order and issuing state.
Find personal jurisdiction.
Determine controlling order and continuing authority.
Classify enforcement versus modification.
Apply registration defenses and choice of law.

Trigger rule: UIFSA keeps one controlling order through personal jurisdiction, continuing authority, registration, and issuing-state duration rules.

Consent, termination, notice, and finalization

Identify child, legal parents, proposed adopters, and governing sovereigns.
Find consent or termination basis.
Check notice and constitutional opportunity.
Screen ICWA and interstate compact issues.
Confirm finalization and legal consequences.

Trigger rule: Adoption requires valid consent or lawful termination, proper notice, child-protection procedure, and compliance with applicable tribal and interstate law.

Domestic violence, protective orders, and child protection

Screen immediate danger and emergency jurisdiction.
Identify available temporary relief.
Plan notice and adversarial hearing.
Integrate custody, child protection, criminal, and interstate rules.
Protect confidential location and safe communication.

Trigger rule: Family-safety problems require urgent protection, procedural fairness, custody coordination, and enforceable interstate relief.

Constitutional limits on family law: marriage, parental rights, termination, and child-support contempt

Identify the right at stake: marriage, parenting, or freedom from incarceration in a support proceeding.
For marriage restrictions, ask whether the law significantly interferes with the right to marry and whether it survives critical examination.
For third-party visitation, ask whether the court gave special weight to a fit parent's decision.
For termination, ask whether the state proved its allegations by at least clear and convincing evidence.

Trigger rule: Identify the fundamental right, state the level of scrutiny or required procedure, and apply the relevant case to the facts.

Child-custody jurisdiction: home state, exclusive continuing jurisdiction, emergencies, and enforcement across states

Determine the child's home state as of the date the proceeding begins, counting six consecutive months and temporary absences.
If the home state has not made an order, check whether it declined jurisdiction and whether significant connection jurisdiction applies.
If an earlier order exists, ask which state has exclusive, continuing jurisdiction.
For an emergency, ask whether the child is present in the state and threatened, and remember that the order is temporary.

Trigger rule: Find the home state, apply the priority of home-state jurisdiction, check for existing orders and exclusive continuing jurisdiction, and address emergencies, inconvenient forum, and enforcement.

Dividing property and awarding alimony at divorce: marital versus separate property (North Carolina as the model)

Classify each asset as marital, separate, or divisible as of the date of marriage and the date of separation.
Apply the presumption that property acquired during the marriage and before separation is marital, and ask whether it has been rebutted.
Start from an equal division and ask whether an equal division is inequitable under the statutory factors.
For alimony, identify a dependent spouse and a supporting spouse and check the statute's fault rules.

Trigger rule: Say which state's law governs, classify the property, apply the presumption and the equal-division starting point, discuss the factors that may justify an unequal division, and address alimony.