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. A professional entity in which the stockholders share in the organization's profits but have their liabilities limited to the amount of their investment.






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






3. A defense requiring proof that the defendant would not have committed the crime but for police trickery.






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






5. The party in a case who has initiated an appeal.






6. In logic - a belief that justifies one in arguing a conclusion.






7. The justified use of force to protect oneself or others.






8. The tort theory that an employer can be sued for the negligent acts of its employees.






9. An approach whereby the courts give a statute a broad interpretation.






10. The questioning of your own witness.






11. A witness who possesses skill and knowledge beyond that of the average person.






12. A compilation of federal administrative regulations arranged by agency.






13. 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.






14. A trial conducted without a jury.






15. 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.






16. Liability without having to prove fault.






17. The division of governmental power among the legislative - executive - and judicial branches.






18. A court order authorizing a sheriff to take property in order to enforce a judgment.






19. Techniques for resolving conflicts that are alternatives to full-scale litigation. The two most common are arbitration and mediation.






20. The power of government to take private property for public purposes.






21. The process of finding the law.






22. The modern pretrial procedure by which one party gains information from the adverse party.






23. A court opinion that establishes new law in an important area.






24. A worldwide network of computer networks.






25. 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.






26. An intentional tort that covers a variety of situations - including disclosure - intrusion - appropriation - and false light.






27. 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.






28. An online legal databease containing court decisions and statutes from the entire country - as well as secondary authority; a competitor to Lexis.






29. Cases that involve different facts and/or rules of law.






30. The general jurisdiction trial courts in the federal system.






31. Court decisions from a higher court in the same jurisdiction.






32. A judicial philosophy that supports an active role for the judiciary in changing the law.






33. 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.






34. Consists of the description of events that a witness testifies to under oath in a legal proceeding.






35. A statute enacted to correct a defect in prior law or to provide a remedy where none existed.






36. Bad intent.






37. An actual incident or condition; not a legal consequence.






38. A statement of the court's decision in which the facts are either omitted or given in very general terms so that it will apply to a wider range of cases.






39. The ethical rule prohibiting attorneys and paralegals from disclosing information regarding a client or a client's case.






40. A process whereby the prosecutor and the defendant's attorney agree for the defendant to plead guilty in exchange for the prosecutor's promise to charge him or her with a lesser offense - drop some additional charges - or request a lesser sentence.






41. A criminal proceeding at which the court informs the defendant of the charges being brought against him or her and the defendant enters a plea.






42. A determination that an attorney may not practice law for a set period of time.






43. A person who initiates an appeal.






44. A statutory citation is a formalized method for referring to a statute's chapter (or title) and section numbers.






45. A method for excusing a prospective juror; no reason need be given.






46. The chronological publication of statutes at the end of a legislative session.






47. Examples of legal writing include case briefs - law office memoranda - and documents filed with the court.






48. A request that the court order a rehearing of a lawsuit because irregularities - such as errors of the court or jury misconduct - make it probable that an impartial trial do not occur.






49. The failure to act reasonably under the circumstances.






50. The rule that in order to claim self-defense there must have been no possibility of retreat.