Test your basic knowledge |

Paralegal 101

Subject : law
Instructions:
  • Answer 50 questions in 15 minutes.
  • If you are not ready to take this test, you can study here.
  • Match each statement with the correct term.
  • Don't refresh. All questions and answers are randomly picked and ordered every time you load a test.

This is a study tool. The 3 wrong answers for each question are randomly chosen from answers to other questions. So, you might find at times the answers obvious, but you will see it re-enforces your understanding as you take the test each time.
1. An attorney's written argument presented to an appeals court - setting forth a statement of the law as it should be applied to the client's facts.






2. Negligence by the plaintiff that contributed to his or her injury. Normally - it is a complete bar to the plaintiff's recovery.






3. The rule requiring that the original document be produced at trial.






4. A defense requiring proof that force or a threat of force was used to cause a person to commit a criminal act.






5. A rule of evidence that prevents an attorney or a paralegal from being compelled to testify about confidential client information.






6. 'The thing speaks for itself'; the doctrine that suggest negligence can be presumed if an event happens that would not ordinarily happen unless someone was negligent.






7. The law that sets the length of time from when something happens to when a lawsuit must be filed before the right to bring it is lost.






8. Questions that suggest the answer.






9. The judge informs the jurors of the law they need to know to make their decision.






10. A test that provides that the defendant is not guity due to insanity if - at the time of the killing the defendant could not control his or her actions.






11. Either a subcategory of relevancy or simply another word for relevancy - the requirement that the evidence be more probative than prejudicial.






12. Disregarding a substantial and unjustifiable risk that harm will result.






13. The process of legislative enactment of areas of the law previously governed solely by the common law.






14. Not factually true - but accepted by the courts as being legally true.






15. A method adopted by the federal rules in which the plaintiff simply informs the defendant of the claim and the general basis for it.






16. A claim by the defendant against the plaintiff.






17. A computer search that identifies every place in which the search term appears in the actual text of the document being searched.






18. A body of principles and rules that are either explicitly stated in - or inferred from - the constitutions of the United States and those of the individual states.






19. The process of signaling that you are really listening - accomplished by using verbal and nonverbal clues - paraphrasing - and reflecting the client's feelings.






20. A nonlawyer who provides legal services directly to the public without being under the supervision of an attorney. Absent a statute allowing this activity - it constitutes the unauthorized practice of law.






21. Once actual cause is found - as a policy matter - the court must also find that the act and the resulting harm were so foreseeably related as to justify a finding of liability.






22. The delivery of a pleading or other paper in a lawsuit to the opposing party.






23. An approach whereby the courts give a statute a narrow interpretation.






24. A pamphlet inserted into the back of a book containing information new since the volume was published.






25. When the defendant does not have sufficient money or other assets to pay the judgment.






26. Consists of records - contracts - leases - wills - and other written instruments.






27. The requirement that defendants be notified of their rights to remain silent and to have an attorney present prior to being questioned by the police.






28. A means of gaining appellate review; in the U.S. Supreme Court the writ is discretionary and will be issued to another court to review a federal question if four of the nine justices vote to hear the case.






29. A national association of paralegal managers.






30. An ADR mechanism whereby the parties submit their disagreement to a third party - whose decision is binding.






31. A request that the court release the defendant because of the illegality of the incarceration.






32. Defendant's reply to the complaint. It may contain statements of denial - admission - or lack of knowledge and affirmative defenses.






33. The standard of proof used in some civil trials. The evidence presented must be greater than a preponderance of the evidence but less than beyond a reasonable doubt.






34. In a case brief - facts that relate to what happened procedurally in the lower courts or administrative agencies before the case reached the court issuing the opinion.






35. Bad intent.






36. To perform.






37. In law - a per curium decision (or opinion) is a ruling issued by an appellate court of multiple judges in which the decision rendered is made by the court (or at least a majoirty of the court) acting collectively and anonymously.






38. The number of hours - or parts of an hour - that can be charged to a specific client.






39. A set of ethical rules developed by the American Bar Association in the 1980s. The Model rules have been adopted by most of the states.






40. The court's power to review statutes to decide whether they conform to the Constitution.






41. An authoritative secondary source - written by a group of legal scholars - summarizing the existing common law - as well as suggesting what the law should be.






42. A court's prior permission for the police to search and seize.






43. An intentional act that creates a reasonable apprehension of an immediate harmful or offensive physical contact.






44. The pleading that begins a lawsuit.






45. The transfer of a case from one state court to a federal court.






46. A canon of construction meaning 'of the same class.:






47. A warrant that allows the police to enter without announcing their presence in advance.






48. A contract that outlines the attorney's duties and the client's obligations regarding payment - on either an hourly or a contingency fee basis - as well as the client's responsibility reagarding costs and expenses.






49. A statement of the court's decision that contains many of the case's specific facts - thereby limiting its future applicability to a narrow range of cases.






50. When a higher court agrees with what lower court has done.