. Forum

[TheBeard]

Good Luck to everyone. I had been using Themis, but am now withdrawing from the bar exam for this July. My wife was 23 weeks pregnant and we lost our daughter this weekend. It does not seem right for me to study for the bar while my wife and I grieve.

I wish you all the best. I had been really enjoying Themis and am glad I had made the choice to use them. I hope to use them again this February when I take the bar.

Sorry to hear that. Wish you the best of luck on the February exam.

[locusdelicti]

Good Luck to everyone. I had been using Themis, but am now withdrawing from the bar exam for this July. My wife was 23 weeks pregnant and we lost our daughter this weekend. It does not seem right for me to study for the bar while my wife and I grieve.

I wish you all the best. I had been really enjoying Themis and am glad I had made the choice to use them. I hope to use them again this February when I take the bar.

I'm really sorry that happened to you. Best of luck, and try to find peace.

[dsclaw]

Spoiler: REAL PROPERTY

The owner of undeveloped land had his attorney prepare a deed transferring the land to his niece as a surprise. The uncle signed the deed and had his attorney record it. However, before the uncle delivered the deed to his niece, the two had a falling out. After the man’s death, the niece learned about the deed when it was found among her uncle’s papers. She transferred her interest in the land by quitclaim deed to a good faith buyer for valuable consideration. The buyer promptly recorded this deed. By will, the owner left his real property to a nephew.

The recording statute in the applicable jurisdiction states: “Any conveyance of an interest in land shall not be valid against any subsequent purchaser for value, without notice thereof, whose conveyance is recorded.”

Who owns the land?
A. The nephew, because he was the devisee of the owner’s real property.
B. The nephew, because the buyer’s interest in the land was obtained through a quitclaim deed.
C. The buyer, because the uncle’s deed to his niece was recorded.
D. The buyer, because the buyer gave valuable consideration for the niece’s interest.

Incorrect: Answer choice A is correct. The uncle retained ownership of the land at his death because he never delivered the deed to his niece, and thus did not complete the gift. Accordingly, the land passed by will to his nephew. Answer choice B is incorrect because the property could have been transferred by quitclaim deed if the niece had owned it. The transfer of a real property interest through a quitclaim deed does not by itself place the transferee on notice as to a problem with the transferor’s ownership of the transferred property. Instead, a quitclaim deed merely limits the liability of the transferor. Answer choice C is incorrect because, although the recording of a deed generally protects a person who buys the property from the record owner, the recording of a deed does not validate an otherwise invalid transfer. Here, since the uncle did not complete the gift to his niece by delivering the deed to her, she did not obtain ownership of the land and therefore could not sell it to a third party. Answer choice D is incorrect because, although a good faith purchaser of real property from the record owner is generally protected from other claimants to the property, in this case the record owner never obtained ownership of the land.

Doesn't recording it serve as a means of delivery and therefore the conveyance of the property to the niece was proper. I am pretty sure in the outline it says having someone record it has the same effect of delivery.

[JD_done]

Good Luck to everyone. I had been using Themis, but am now withdrawing from the bar exam for this July. My wife was 23 weeks pregnant and we lost our daughter this weekend. It does not seem right for me to study for the bar while my wife and I grieve.

I wish you all the best. I had been really enjoying Themis and am glad I had made the choice to use them. I hope to use them again this February when I take the bar.

I am so sorry. I can only imagine the grief you and your wife are experiencing. Sending you both comforting thoughts and prayers.

[Themis Bar Review]

Good Luck to everyone. I had been using Themis, but am now withdrawing from the bar exam for this July. My wife was 23 weeks pregnant and we lost our daughter this weekend. It does not seem right for me to study for the bar while my wife and I grieve.

I wish you all the best. I had been really enjoying Themis and am glad I had made the choice to use them. I hope to use them again this February when I take the bar.

We are so sorry to hear of your loss. Please accept our sincere apologies.

EJ
Themis Bar Review

[09042014]

Good Luck to everyone. I had been using Themis, but am now withdrawing from the bar exam for this July. My wife was 23 weeks pregnant and we lost our daughter this weekend. It does not seem right for me to study for the bar while my wife and I grieve.

I wish you all the best. I had been really enjoying Themis and am glad I had made the choice to use them. I hope to use them again this February when I take the bar.

I'm very sorry to hear that.

You are making the right choice, family first, you'll never regret that.

[forza]

Good Luck to everyone. I had been using Themis, but am now withdrawing from the bar exam for this July. My wife was 23 weeks pregnant and we lost our daughter this weekend. It does not seem right for me to study for the bar while my wife and I grieve.

I wish you all the best. I had been really enjoying Themis and am glad I had made the choice to use them. I hope to use them again this February when I take the bar.

Sorry to hear that, man. The bar can wait.

Hope you and your wife find some comfort in the coming days.

[as stars burn]

Anyone finding that it's a huge pain in the ass to review MBE PQs after having answered them in test mode?

I know I would never actually do it, so I always do interactive mode.

Same. I've tried going test mode just so I don't get frustrated with all the answers I miss, but I never want to review them afterward because of all the scrolling up and down and shit. So annoying.

Precisely my problem. I wish we could review the same way we do milestones - by simply going down the page and reading questions/explanations in plain text format.

Themis, I know you're lurking. This shouldn't be difficult to fix.

Can someone please explain to me how to review answers/wrong answers in test mode? The only thing I can get to is a portion of the outline that the question pertains too, but I don't see any explanations of the answers. I love test mode because I seem to perform so much better without knowing that I selected the wrong answer to the previous question, but if I can't review my answers then this isn't helping me in the long run.

Edit: nevermind, I figured it out. I just feel like an idiot now though.

Also, to the above poster, I'm so sorry for your loss :( I had a very good friend who was studying for the bar exam last summer when her father got really, really sick. She ultimately decided to ditch bar prep and spent precious time with her dad. He passed away that August, and she is so grateful that she concentrated on what matters most: family. She ultimately took and passed the exam that following February :)

[Agoraphobia]

Good Luck to everyone. I had been using Themis, but am now withdrawing from the bar exam for this July. My wife was 23 weeks pregnant and we lost our daughter this weekend. It does not seem right for me to study for the bar while my wife and I grieve.

I wish you all the best. I had been really enjoying Themis and am glad I had made the choice to use them. I hope to use them again this February when I take the bar.

I am so sorry. I'll keep your family in my thoughts and prayers.

[Bustang]

Sorry for your loss - Hope you and your wife handle everything ok.

I wanted to discuss a contracts problem that was debated at length a few pages ago. It dealt with a buyer purchasing 25 fur coats from a designer. The contract said "FOB designer's place of business." A lot of people were irritated because we believed the risk of loss was on the designer, not the buyer, but the answer choice indicated otherwise. I was just reviewing the main contracts outline, and I discovered the reason why most of us were wrong. This distinction was completely left out of the handout:

The outline states a shipment contract MAY be identified by "the words F.O.B. seller's place of business." The outline then states a contract is a destination contract if it is identified by the words "FOB buyer's place of business

That small distinction solves the confusion to that question. I wish he would have been more specific in the handout. The lesson here: FOB does not automatically mean a destination contract!

(the assignment issue being a breach is still confusing, however. I've come to accept that Themis/the bar never thinks an assignment is a breach).

[locusdelicti]

Sorry for your loss - Hope you and your wife handle everything ok.

I wanted to discuss a contracts problem that was debated at length a few pages ago. It dealt with a buyer purchasing 25 fur coats from a designer. The contract said "FOB designer's place of business." A lot of people were irritated because we believed the risk of loss was on the designer, not the buyer, but the answer choice indicated otherwise. I was just reviewing the main contracts outline, and I discovered the reason why most of us were wrong. This distinction was completely left out of the handout:

The outline states a shipment contract MAY be identified by "the words F.O.B. seller's place of business." The outline then states a contract is a destination contract if it is identified by the words "FOB buyer's place of business

That small distinction solves the confusion to that question. I wish he would have been more specific in the handout. The lesson here: FOB does not automatically mean a destination contract!

(the assignment issue being a breach is still confusing, however. I've come to accept that Themis/the bar never thinks an assignment is a breach).

Assignment is a breach if the contract PROHIBITS assignments. However, the assignee can still enforce the assignment and get the benefit of the contract, but the assignor is in breach.

If the contract INVALIDATES assignments, the assignment is no good as to anyone.

[as stars burn]

Sorry for your loss - Hope you and your wife handle everything ok.

I wanted to discuss a contracts problem that was debated at length a few pages ago. It dealt with a buyer purchasing 25 fur coats from a designer. The contract said "FOB designer's place of business." A lot of people were irritated because we believed the risk of loss was on the designer, not the buyer, but the answer choice indicated otherwise. I was just reviewing the main contracts outline, and I discovered the reason why most of us were wrong. This distinction was completely left out of the handout:

The outline states a shipment contract MAY be identified by "the words F.O.B. seller's place of business." The outline then states a contract is a destination contract if it is identified by the words "FOB buyer's place of business

That small distinction solves the confusion to that question. I wish he would have been more specific in the handout. The lesson here: FOB does not automatically mean a destination contract!

(the assignment issue being a breach is still confusing, however. I've come to accept that Themis/the bar never thinks an assignment is a breach).

Assignment is a breach if the contract PROHIBITS assignments. However, the assignee can still enforce the assignment and get the benefit of the contract, but the assignor is in breach.

If the contract INVALIDATES assignments, the assignment is no good as to anyone.

Perfectly stated. If I remember anything it's when Geis said that exact phrasing in the lecture. I just love that man. All I can think about is squashed caterpillars and Pizza With Crawling Escargot now.

[Dr. Review]

He keeps skipping big chunks of the outline, he takes these ridiculously long pauses and he's kind of all over the place. He's driving me crazy.

This is out of control. He just skipped half a page.

[locusdelicti]

He keeps skipping big chunks of the outline, he takes these ridiculously long pauses and he's kind of all over the place. He's driving me crazy.

This is out of control. He just skipped half a page.

Right??? He's much better when he does Trusts, but yeah, the Wills lectures made me bananas.

[TheBeard]

He keeps skipping big chunks of the outline, he takes these ridiculously long pauses and he's kind of all over the place. He's driving me crazy.

This is out of control. He just skipped half a page.

Hibbitts. Oh god. Only Gaffney is worse than this guy.

[Bustang]

Let's have a poll:

What's worse, scoring extremely poorly on a quiz but know you're doing badly the whole time, or scoring very highly on a quiz that you think you're doing badly on the whole time. I just knocked out a 82% on a contracts quiz that I literally felt good about 5 answers on.

[as stars burn]

Let's have a poll:

What's worse, scoring extremely poorly on a quiz but know you're doing badly the whole time, or scoring very highly on a quiz that you think you're doing badly on the whole time. I just knocked out a 82% on a contracts quiz that I literally felt good about 5 answers on.

Some of this bar exam stuff is luck. I hate feeling like shit after an exam though, and then spending months agonizing and worrying about it just to find out I did just fine. I'm going to go with scoring very highly on a quiz that I think I'm doing badly on the whole time as being the worse. Somehow, it's easier to take knowing I'm performing like crap and then actually performing like crap. I could be the minority though.

[dsclaw]

Just took the NY Mixed Questions, bombed it.... 9 out of 25 and they expect you to be 60%. Really?

[calibred]

Consistently doing pretty bad on the CA graded essays -- Pretty much my only weak point at this stage. Anybody have an idea of where we should be at score-wise at this point?

No idea, but I've been getting terrible scores, and I felt pretty good about the Prop and Crim essays. Got a 55 and 60 on the two of them, respectively, and I've been using my outlines for when I'm unsure of the law.

Thanks, that's good to know. 55-60 has been par for the course for me too and I've also been using the outlines as a crutch after writing down all that I can remember. I'm gonna just assume that we're good for now.

[balzie94]

Did anyone else take the practice MPT and then look at the model answer and go, "Huh??" But seriously, how can we be expected to write an answer half as good as that one in 45 minutes?

[dsclaw]

Plaintiff entered into a professional services contract with a lawyer to represent Plaintiff in a real estate transaction. The lawyer was negligent in his representation of Plaintiff, and Plaintiff brought a legal malpractice claim against the lawyer for failure to exercise due care in the performance of a contract. Plaintiff sought financial compensation. What is the statute of limitations for Plaintiff to bring a viable claim?

Answers

Six years from the date of contract.
Three years from the date of the lawyer's negligent conduct.
Two and a half years from the date Plaintiff terminated the professional relationship with the lawyer.
Six years from the date of the alleged wrongdoing.

Rationale:
Answer choice D is correct. The choice of the applicable statute of limitations relates to the remedy sought rather than the theory of liability. In applying the statute of limitations, the "reality" or "essence" of the action should be examined, not its form. The lawyer as Defendant would argue the "essence" of the malpractice action is negligence. However, a legal malpractice claim in which the remedy sought is damages relating solely to a plaintiff's pecuniary or property loss and which arises out of the contractual relationship is a breach of contract action. Therefore, answer choice B is incorrect. Answer choice C is incorrect because the two and a half year statute of limitations for professional malpractice is limited in its application to medical malpractice claims only. Answer choice A is incorrect because the statute of limitations begins to run from the date of the breach rather than the date of the contract.

Clearly Themis does not look at its questions, the Legal Malpractice claim based on contract no longer exists. Someone should let Themis know about this

[TheBeard]

Plaintiff entered into a professional services contract with a lawyer to represent Plaintiff in a real estate transaction. The lawyer was negligent in his representation of Plaintiff, and Plaintiff brought a legal malpractice claim against the lawyer for failure to exercise due care in the performance of a contract. Plaintiff sought financial compensation. What is the statute of limitations for Plaintiff to bring a viable claim?

Answers

Six years from the date of contract.
Three years from the date of the lawyer's negligent conduct.
Two and a half years from the date Plaintiff terminated the professional relationship with the lawyer.
Six years from the date of the alleged wrongdoing.

Rationale:
Answer choice D is correct. The choice of the applicable statute of limitations relates to the remedy sought rather than the theory of liability. In applying the statute of limitations, the "reality" or "essence" of the action should be examined, not its form. The lawyer as Defendant would argue the "essence" of the malpractice action is negligence. However, a legal malpractice claim in which the remedy sought is damages relating solely to a plaintiff's pecuniary or property loss and which arises out of the contractual relationship is a breach of contract action. Therefore, answer choice B is incorrect. Answer choice C is incorrect because the two and a half year statute of limitations for professional malpractice is limited in its application to medical malpractice claims only. Answer choice A is incorrect because the statute of limitations begins to run from the date of the breach rather than the date of the contract.

Clearly Themis does not look at its questions, the Legal Malpractice claim based on contract no longer exists. Someone should let Themis know about this

Please tell me this question comes from a state specific subject. I just panicked a little.

[BarbellDreams]

Thank God I took Estates and Trusts in LS. I wouldn't know what the hell was going on if I was learning this from scratch right now (which is likely what I will feel like when learning Tax).

[dsclaw]

Plaintiff entered into a professional services contract with a lawyer to represent Plaintiff in a real estate transaction. The lawyer was negligent in his representation of Plaintiff, and Plaintiff brought a legal malpractice claim against the lawyer for failure to exercise due care in the performance of a contract. Plaintiff sought financial compensation. What is the statute of limitations for Plaintiff to bring a viable claim?

Answers

Six years from the date of contract.
Three years from the date of the lawyer's negligent conduct.
Two and a half years from the date Plaintiff terminated the professional relationship with the lawyer.
Six years from the date of the alleged wrongdoing.

Rationale:
Answer choice D is correct. The choice of the applicable statute of limitations relates to the remedy sought rather than the theory of liability. In applying the statute of limitations, the "reality" or "essence" of the action should be examined, not its form. The lawyer as Defendant would argue the "essence" of the malpractice action is negligence. However, a legal malpractice claim in which the remedy sought is damages relating solely to a plaintiff's pecuniary or property loss and which arises out of the contractual relationship is a breach of contract action. Therefore, answer choice B is incorrect. Answer choice C is incorrect because the two and a half year statute of limitations for professional malpractice is limited in its application to medical malpractice claims only. Answer choice A is incorrect because the statute of limitations begins to run from the date of the breach rather than the date of the contract.

Clearly Themis does not look at its questions, the Legal Malpractice claim based on contract no longer exists. Someone should let Themis know about this

Please tell me this question comes from a state specific subject. I just panicked a little.

Yes its state specific, but I realized that the decision just came down this year so it probably will not be reflected in the bar exam either. I am sorry people, the answer is correct. Did not want to scare anyone. By the way for all of you who are up to the mixed state practice questions they are not just on the MBE subjects but include family law, wills, corporations, partnerships, NY CPLR, etc.

[GertrudePerkins]

Anybody have any notion what these "Simulated MBE Analysis Day 1: Real Property" etc. items are? Some kind of after-action review of the mock MBE scheduled for next week? Is it a lecture?