Law School

▶ Click Here to Master Evidence Foundations ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ EPISODE SUMMARY Privileges exclude relevant evidence to protect important relationships and constitutional values. Attorney-client privilege protects confidential communications for legal advice, but not underlying facts, and may be lost through waiver or the crime-fraud exception. Work product protects materials prepared in anticipation of li...

▶ Click Here to Master Evidence Foundations ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ EPISODE SUMMARY Hearsay exceptions are organized around reliability, necessity, adversarial testing, and policy. Some exceptions apply regardless of declarant availability. Others require unavailability. Some statements are not hearsay at all. And in criminal cases, confrontation may override ordinary hearsay analysis. Rule 803 exceptions appl...

▶ Click Here to Master Evidence Foundations ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ EPISODE SUMMARY Hearsay is an out-of-court statement offered to prove the truth of the matter asserted. A statement may be an oral assertion, written assertion, or nonverbal conduct intended as an assertion. The declarant is the person who made the statement. The hearsay analysis asks three questions: Was there a statement? Was it made outside...

▶ Click Here to Master Evidence Foundations ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ EPISODE SUMMARY Witness testimony is built on foundation and tested through credibility. Under the Federal Rules, every person is competent to testify unless a rule provides otherwise. Competency is a low threshold. Weak memory, interest, age, criminal history, or bias usually affects credibility, not admissibility. A lay witness must have per...

» 📘VIEW THE COMPANION STUDY GUIDE📘[💡FREE💡] « ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ EPISODE SUMMARY Relevance is the starting point of admissibility. The analysis begins by identifying the item of evidence, the proposition it is offered to prove, whether that proposition matters under the substantive law, whether the evidence makes the proposition more or less probable, and whether another rule excludes or li...

▶ Click Here to Master Evidence Foundations ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ EPISODE SUMMARY Evidence law governs controlled proof at trial. Evidence is information presented to a factfinder to prove or disprove a fact. It may include testimony, documents, photographs, recordings, physical objects, stipulations, judicially noticed facts, summaries, expert opinions, business records, public records, and demonstrative ai...

» 📘VIEW THE COMPANION STUDY GUIDE📘[💡FREE💡] « ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ EPISODE SUMMARY Due process appears in both the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments. The Fifth Amendment limits the federal government, while the Fourteenth Amendment limits states and local governments. Due process includes several related but distinct doctrines. Procedural due process requires fair procedures before government d...

» 📘VIEW THE COMPANION STUDY GUIDE📘[💡FREE💡] « ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ EPISODE SUMMARY The First Amendment restricts government regulation of speech, press, association, religion, and expressive activity. It generally does not restrict private censorship unless state action exists. Speech regulations must be classified carefully. Content-based laws regulate speech because of subject matter or mes...

» 📘VIEW THE COMPANION STUDY GUIDE📘[💡FREE💡] « ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ EPISODE SUMMARY Equal protection asks whether government has drawn a constitutionally permissible line between persons or groups. The Equal Protection Clause directly limits states and local governments, and equal protection principles apply to the federal government through the Fifth Amendment Due Process Clause. The first st...

» 📘VIEW THE COMPANION STUDY GUIDE📘[💡FREE💡] « ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ EPISODE SUMMARY States have broad police power to regulate health, safety, welfare, and morals. But state power is limited by the Constitution’s commitment to federal supremacy, national economic union, equal treatment of out-of-state citizens, fair taxation of interstate activity, and protection of federal operations. Preempt...

» 📘VIEW THE COMPANION STUDY GUIDE📘[💡FREE💡] « ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ EPISODE SUMMARY Executive power begins with Article II, but Article II does not give the President unlimited authority. The President executes law, supervises the executive branch, conducts diplomacy, commands the armed forces, appoints officers through constitutionally prescribed methods, and must take care that the laws be faithfully ex...

» 📘VIEW THE COMPANION STUDY GUIDE📘[💡FREE💡] « ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ EPISODE SUMMARY Congress must act pursuant to constitutional authority. The federal government is powerful, but it is not a government of general police power. Important congressional powers include commerce, taxing, spending, war powers, naturalization, bankruptcy, postal powers, amendment enforcement powers, and the authorit...

» 📘VIEW THE COMPANION STUDY GUIDE📘[💡FREE💡] « ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ EPISODE SUMMARY Constitutional law begins with government power and constitutional limits. The Constitution creates a federal government of limited powers, divides authority among three branches, preserves a role for state governments, and protects individual rights against government action. Judicial review allows courts to decide whethe...

» 📘VIEW THE COMPANION STUDY GUIDE📘[💡FREE💡] « ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ EPISODE SUMMARY A mortgage is a security interest in land that secures repayment of a debt. The mortgagor gives the mortgage; the mortgagee receives it. The mortgage follows the debt and should be discharged when the debt is paid. Mortgage theories vary. Title-theory jurisdictions treat the mortgage as transferring title to th...

» 📘VIEW THE COMPANION STUDY GUIDE📘[💡FREE💡] « ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ EPISODE SUMMARY Property ownership does not mean unlimited use. Land may be restricted by private promises, neighborhood schemes, nuisance principles, zoning, and constitutional doctrines. A real covenant is a land-use promise enforceable through damages. For the burden to run, traditional law usually requires writing, intent,...

» 📘VIEW THE COMPANION STUDY GUIDE📘[💡FREE💡] « ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ EPISODE SUMMARY Adverse possession allows a possessor to acquire title by satisfying statutory requirements for the limitations period. The common elements are actual, open and notorious, exclusive, adverse or hostile, and continuous possession. Tacking allows successive possessors to combine periods if privity exists. Disabil...

» 📘VIEW THE COMPANION STUDY GUIDE📘[💡FREE💡] « ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ EPISODE SUMMARY A land sale contract must usually satisfy the Statute of Frauds through a writing signed by the party to be charged, identifying the parties, describing the land, and stating essential terms. Exceptions include part performance and equitable estoppel. Unless the contract provides otherwise, the seller must deli...

» 📘VIEW THE COMPANION STUDY GUIDE📘[💡FREE💡] « ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ EPISODE SUMMARY Concurrent ownership exists when two or more people hold present interests in the same property. A tenancy in common is the default modern form. Each tenant in common has an undivided right to possess the whole and a separate fractional share. There is no right of survivorship, and each share is transferable, d...

» 📘 VIEW THE COMPANION STUDY GUIDE 📘 [💡FREE💡] « ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ EPISODE SUMMARY An estate in land is a present or future ownership interest measured by time. The fee simple absolute is the largest estate, potentially infinite in duration and freely transferable, devisable, and descendible. Traditional language “to A and her heirs” created a fee simple absolute, though modern law usually...

» 📘 VIEW THE COMPANION STUDY GUIDE 📘 [💡FREE💡] « ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ EPISODE SUMMARY Property rights are legal relationships among people with respect to things. Ownership does not mean unlimited control. It may include rights to possess, exclude, use, enjoy, transfer, devise, lease, mortgage, or abandon property, but those rights are limited by law and competing interests. The right to excl...

» 📘 VIEW THE COMPANION STUDY GUIDE 📘 [💡FREE💡] « ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ EPISODE SUMMARY Defenses complete the structure of Criminal Law. Some defenses negate elements; others justify or excuse conduct. Justification means the act was legally permissible under the circumstances. Excuse means the act was wrongful, but the defendant is not properly blameworthy. Self-defense permits reasonable forc...

» 📘 VIEW THE COMPANION STUDY GUIDE 📘 [💡FREE💡] « ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ EPISODE SUMMARY Parties to crime must be analyzed role by role. A person may be liable as an accomplice if the person intentionally aids, assists, encourages, facilitates, or solicits the principal’s crime with the required mental state. The usual requirements are assistance or encouragement plus intent to aid and intent th...

» 📘 VIEW THE COMPANION STUDY GUIDE 📘 [💡FREE💡] « ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ EPISODE SUMMARY Inchoate crimes punish dangerous movement toward crime before the target offense is completed. The major inchoate crimes are attempt, solicitation, and conspiracy. Attempt requires intent to commit the target crime plus an act sufficiently close to completion. Attempt is a specific-intent offense even when t...

» 📘 VIEW THE COMPANION STUDY GUIDE 📘 [💡FREE💡] « ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ EPISODE SUMMARY Criminal Law includes crimes against the person, sexual offenses, and property crimes, each with precise elements. Battery is the unlawful application of force resulting in bodily injury or offensive touching. Assault may mean attempted battery or intentionally placing another in apprehension of imminent bod...

» 📘 VIEW THE COMPANION STUDY GUIDE 📘 [💡FREE💡] « ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ EPISODE SUMMARY Homicide is the killing of one human being by another, but not every killing is murder. Homicide may be criminal or noncriminal, justified or excused, intentional or accidental, murder or manslaughter. At common law, murder is the unlawful killing of another human being with malice aforethought. Malice tradi...