MPT practice tasks
30 complete performance tasks are here, each with a task memorandum, a File of facts, a Library of the only law you may use, a rubric, and a model answer. The kinds of work product are objective memorandum, persuasive brief, client letter. The State of Franklin, its statutes, and its cases are invented for practice, so nothing in these tasks is a real authority or a released exam item. Read the assignment first, mark what the reader needs, then work from the Library to the facts before you write.
Rent withholding and the warranty of habitability
Predict whether a tenant who withheld rent can defeat an eviction, and whether the landlord's notice defense works.
Suppressing evidence from a phone search
Write the argument section of a motion to suppress data taken from a phone seized during an arrest.
A boundary fence and adverse possession
Predict who owns a disputed strip of land after decades of use behind a fence.
A child injured on a construction site
Argue against summary judgment for a landowner sued by a trespassing child.
A price increase demanded mid-contract
Advise a client whether it must pay a supplier's demanded increase and what to do.
A manager's side deal in an LLC
Predict whether an LLC manager breached fiduciary duties and what relief the members can seek.
A motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction
Argue that a Franklin court cannot hear a claim against an out-of-state seller that shipped one product at a buyer's request.
An oral contract to sell land
Predict whether a buyer who moved onto land under an oral agreement can force the sale.
Unpaid final wages and a commission
Advise a discharged employee what wages she is owed and what damages she may seek.
Hearsay and a business record at trial
Predict whether an invoice ledger and a bystander's statement will be admitted.
A former employee's noncompete agreement
Predict whether a Franklin court will enforce a two-year, statewide noncompete against a departing sales manager.
A will signed with only one witness
Advise a client whether a parent's handwritten will with one witness can be admitted to probate.
A lawyer asked to represent two business partners
Predict whether a lawyer may represent two co-owners in a business dispute and what consent would require.
A worker fired after reporting a safety violation
Predict whether an at-will employee can sue for wrongful discharge after reporting unsafe conditions to a state agency.
A medical claim discovered years later
Argue that a limitations period was tolled until the patient discovered a surgical error.
A landlord's security deposit deductions
Advise a former tenant whether her landlord may keep her deposit and what she can recover.
A neighbor's long use of a farm road
Predict whether a landowner acquired a prescriptive easement over a neighbor's farm road and whether permission defeats it.
A worker paid a salary but denied overtime
Advise a worker whether an employer's 'manager' label defeats an overtime claim.
A commercial buyer's late warranty claim
Argue that a buyer gave timely notice of breach and that a disclaimer does not bar its warranty claim.
Suppressing a confession taken after a request for a lawyer
Argue that a confession must be suppressed because police kept questioning after the suspect asked for counsel.
A trustee who bought trust property
Advise a beneficiary whether a trustee's purchase of trust property can be undone.
A parent's move and a request to modify custody
Predict whether a court will modify a custody order after a parent relocates with the child.
A false online review of a contractor
Predict whether a contractor can win a defamation claim over a customer's online review and whether the statements are opinion.
A search of a car after the driver was arrested
Argue that evidence found in a car must be suppressed because the driver was secured when officers searched it.
A broker's claim to a commission after the listing expired
Advise a seller whether she owes a broker a commission on a sale made after the listing agreement ended.
A commercial dough mixer with no safety interlock
Oppose a manufacturer's motion for summary judgment on a design defect claim by showing a reasonable alternative design.
An insurer refuses to defend a tavern in an assault suit
Predict whether an insurer must defend its insured when the complaint alleges both an intentional battery and negligent supervision.
A supplier's oral promise of a two-year exclusive price
Advise a bakery owner whether she can enforce a supplier's unwritten two-year promise under promissory estoppel.
An undercover officer and a sale of stolen power tools
Argue that the defendant is entitled to an entrapment instruction because the officer induced the sale and the defendant was not predisposed.
An elderly man's will leaving everything to his caregiver
Predict whether a son's will contest for undue influence will succeed against a caregiver who arranged her client's new will.