2015 February California Bar Exam Forum

[redblueyellow]

I'm very tempted to go just go movie hopping for the rest of the day.

There's so many that I've missed over the past few months because of work and bar prep. Granted, none of them are still in theaters--wait let me check--nope, all gone, save for American Sniper.

Maybe I should change careers? Maybe be a paralegal for a year or two while I study something else on the side, or I could always get a teaching credential and teach some liberal art subject in a high school. I think a JD + BA + teaching credential would be sufficient. They make decent money, I think, right? Maybe start at $50k or something? Then I could slowly move up the management chain into becoming an assistant principal and then one day become principal? They make a bit over $100k. Might take me a while to get there, though. No way I could afford a house with a $100k salary in CA.

Might give me time to finally get settled down, hit the gym, maybe travel? I hear you need a girlfriend/wife to actually settle down though, so I should probably hit the gym first until I can get a respectable picture for OKCupid.

I could learn to code, but I think everyone's doing that and the market is now saturated with subpar coders and the big companies probably just want the top tier educated ones.

I could go in to car sales? Nah, that's probably worse in terms of hours than being an attorney.

[a male human]

Maybe watching Whiplash is another way to motivate you

[redblueyellow]

Maybe watching Whiplash is another way to motivate you

"A promising young drummer enrolls at a cut-throat music conservatory where his dreams of greatness are mentored by an instructor who will stop at nothing to realize a student's potential." - IMDB on Whiplash

Where is this mentor that will stop at nothing to realize my potential?!

[a male human]

Maybe watching Whiplash is another way to motivate you

"A promising young drummer enrolls at a cut-throat music conservatory where his dreams of greatness are mentored by an instructor who will stop at nothing to realize a student's potential." - IMDB on Whiplash

Where is this mentor that will stop at nothing to realize my potential?!

Well, the drummer also motivates himself

[cndounda1985]

Can someone show me how to set up essay for Strict Liability for ultra-hazardous activity? I know there's an absolute duty to make safe and the three requirements, that the activity can't be made safe even with existing technology, it's possess severe risk of harm and it's not common usage in the community. I'm just a bit confused how to set it up. Do i talk about the three requirements under Breach or Duty? Thanks

[jarofsoup]

Can someone show me how to set up essay for Strict Liability for ultra-hazardous activity? I know there's an absolute duty to make safe and the three requirements, that the activity can't be made safe even with existing technology, it's possess severe risk of harm and it's not common usage in the community. I'm just a bit confused how to set it up. Do i talk about the three requirements under Breach or Duty? Thanks

Basically it takes care of breach and breach of duty. You still need to prove causation and damages.

[bb8900]

For joinder of claims, do you need each claim to meet the 75K amount in controversy OR just one claim to meet it and then piggyback all the other claims you have?

For example: if I have a diversity case with an 80,000 claims against D, can I add my 2,000 other claim for something not of the same transaction or occurence to this litigation?

Thanks!

[jarofsoup]

For joinder of claims, do you need each claim to meet the 75K amount in controversy OR just one claim to meet it and then piggyback all the other claims you have?

For example: if I have a diversity case with an 80,000 claims against D, can I add my 2,000 other claim for something not of the same transaction or occurence to this litigation?

Thanks!

Yeah, but I think it has to be the same D.

[cndounda1985]

Can someone show me how to set up essay for Strict Liability for ultra-hazardous activity? I know there's an absolute duty to make safe and the three requirements, that the activity can't be made safe even with existing technology, it's possess severe risk of harm and it's not common usage in the community. I'm just a bit confused how to set it up. Do i talk about the three requirements under Breach or Duty? Thanks

Basically it takes care of breach and breach of duty. You still need to prove causation and damages.

Ok thank you

[hyc9598]

[hyc9598]

[redblueyellow]

Don't you think Adaptibar civ pro is full of weird questions? Should have taken Kaplan q bank ($299).

Can't really comment as to the new Adaptibar comment, but at least for Civ Pro, no one really knows what to expect since there aren't any official questions yet (outside the 10 released). For Kaplan, they seem "reasonable," but I don't think they're super close to the 10 officially released versions, though.

[CourtneyElizabeth]

I think it's insane they released 10 questions and we're the guinea pigs for this. maybe that means they scale will be tipped on our favor...

[bb8900]

I think it's insane they released 10 questions and we're the guinea pigs for this. maybe that means they scale will be tipped on our favor...

I am also shocked that they only released 10 questions! That is a ridiculously low amount. At least release 100. There is no way to know if any of the providers questions are accurate in terms of difficulty. Plus, this could totally destroy the MBE curve depending on how easy or hard they are. They will either make the curve impossible, or destroy it if everyone has to compensate by getting other questions right. Ridiculous!

[Elms]

I think it's insane they released 10 questions and we're the guinea pigs for this. maybe that means they scale will be tipped on our favor...

I am also shocked that they only released 10 questions! That is a ridiculously low amount. At least release 100. There is no way to know if any of the providers questions are accurate in terms of difficulty. Plus, this could totally destroy the MBE curve depending on how easy or hard they are. They will either make the curve impossible, or destroy it if everyone has to compensate by getting other questions right. Ridiculous!

I'm personally trying to compensate by getting more of the other questions right. It seems like a better use of time since they're a known factor. I mean, I'm studying civ pro a lot, too, but I'm doing a shit ton more studying of the MBE subjects than I did last time I took the bar.

But who knows how it will all play out.

[bb8900]

I think it's insane they released 10 questions and we're the guinea pigs for this. maybe that means they scale will be tipped on our favor...

I am also shocked that they only released 10 questions! That is a ridiculously low amount. At least release 100. There is no way to know if any of the providers questions are accurate in terms of difficulty. Plus, this could totally destroy the MBE curve depending on how easy or hard they are. They will either make the curve impossible, or destroy it if everyone has to compensate by getting other questions right. Ridiculous!

I'm personally trying to compensate by getting more of the other questions right. It seems like a better use of time since they're a known factor. I mean, I'm studying civ pro a lot, too, but I'm doing a shit ton more studying of the MBE subjects than I did last time I took the bar.

But who knows how it will all play out.

This is exactly my concern. Are people going to met the curve by getting easy points off of civ pro OR is it going to be so effing hard that we have to compensate by beyond acing the other sections?

[jarofsoup]

I think you will have an advantage if you have a decent grasp of civ pro. Some of the issues are not that hard like SMJ, PJ, etc.

[melvinIII]

Most of the essays that Kaplan has graded for me have had really helpful feedback but they just returned an evidence essay where the grader said "Stay away from non legal terms. I'm not sure that "logically relevant" and "legally relevant" are terms you should be using, particularly when there are legal terms that you can use." Someone please tell me if logical/legal relevance aren't legal terms because every single model answer on baressays.com starts out with a discussion of those terms.

[Elms]

I think you will have an advantage if you have a decent grasp of civ pro. Some of the issues are not that hard like SMJ, PJ, etc.

I guess that's what I mean. I'll try to have a decent grasp of the major issues. (I mean, really, we should anyways since it's possible to get an essay question on it). But I'm not going to freak out about learning things in great detail on the chance that the MBE questions turn out to be SUPER hard. I think I'd rather throw my time at improving on other MBE subjects where we have a good idea of what the questions will be.

I think if you have a decent, high-level grasp of Civ Pro and can do well on the other subjects, you should be fine. If the questions are like the other MBE questions, you can usually knock out some choices easily and up your odds of picking the right ones, anyways.

[Elms]

Most of the essays that Kaplan has graded for me have had really helpful feedback but they just returned an evidence essay where the grader said "Stay away from non legal terms. I'm not sure that "logically relevant" and "legally relevant" are terms you should be using, particularly when there are legal terms that you can use." Someone please tell me if logical/legal relevance aren't legal terms because every single model answer on baressays.com starts out with a discussion of those terms.

Um... I have an old Barbri Essays book and every single evidence model answer they give uses "logically relevant" and "legally relevant." So... I'm pretty sure I would not listen to that grader. Also, I'm using Barmax outlines and they also use the logically and legally relevant terminology.

[redblueyellow]

Most of the essays that Kaplan has graded for me have had really helpful feedback but they just returned an evidence essay where the grader said "Stay away from non legal terms. I'm not sure that "logically relevant" and "legally relevant" are terms you should be using, particularly when there are legal terms that you can use." Someone please tell me if logical/legal relevance aren't legal terms because every single model answer on baressays.com starts out with a discussion of those terms.

Yea, not true. All the old essays use both logical/legal relevance (and have separate sections for each), however, you are are welcome to combine logical and legal relevance into one subheading without any "losing points" or anything like that. Probably easier to read and write that way as well.

I think you will have an advantage if you have a decent grasp of civ pro. Some of the issues are not that hard like SMJ, PJ, etc.

But those are the two easiest things in civ pro.

It's the little things that are going to be likely tested (quantity) on the MBE that's going to throw people off. Although, at least for the essays, they've generally stayed along the SMJ/PJ, MSJ/Motion to Dismiss groups, but sometimes they'll go out to left field and throw in the interpleader/impleader/intervention trifecta couple with amendments and so forth.

[melvinIII]

Most of the essays that Kaplan has graded for me have had really helpful feedback but they just returned an evidence essay where the grader said "Stay away from non legal terms. I'm not sure that "logically relevant" and "legally relevant" are terms you should be using, particularly when there are legal terms that you can use." Someone please tell me if logical/legal relevance aren't legal terms because every single model answer on baressays.com starts out with a discussion of those terms.

Um... I have an old Barbri Essays book and every single evidence model answer they give uses "logically relevant" and "legally relevant." So... I'm pretty sure I would not listen to that grader. Also, I'm using Barmax outlines and they also use the logically and legally relevant terminology.

Yeah logical/legal relevance are also two of the first terms on the evidence leansheets. Admittedly, the essay he graded wasn't one of my best but I started laughing out loud when I read his feedback. He also said I need to proofread my answers better but he started off his critique by saying "To may of your conclusions was either wrong or based on shaky analysis." I could write a long post critiquing nearly everything he said but it's not worth my time, I would be upset about bad it is but I'm not paying for it so I can't be that mad.

Just goes to show that (1) there's no substitute for grading your own essays and (2) there's a reason some people are working as bar graders

[morescotchplease]

let's go!

[CourtneyElizabeth]

Um... I have an old Barbri Essays book and every single evidence model answer they give uses "logically relevant" and "legally relevant." So... I'm pretty sure I would not listen to that grader. Also, I'm using Barmax outlines and they also use the logically and legally relevant terminology.

My bar tutor told me just throw Logical and legal Relevance as headings in at the beginning and then for each piece of evidence after BRIEFLY mention them by saying like "See above" type thing. Is that not what everyone else is doing?

[Elms]

Um... I have an old Barbri Essays book and every single evidence model answer they give uses "logically relevant" and "legally relevant." So... I'm pretty sure I would not listen to that grader. Also, I'm using Barmax outlines and they also use the logically and legally relevant terminology.

My bar tutor told me just throw Logical and legal Relevance as headings in at the beginning and then for each piece of evidence after BRIEFLY mention them by saying like "See above" type thing. Is that not what everyone else is doing?

I think that's fine. For any essay that has issues or definitions that repeat, it's okay to say "see above" to save time and not rewrite the definition all over again. But Melvin's grader seemed to be saying NOT to use the terms logically or legally relevant AT ALL, not even once. Which, is not good advice. You should mention those terms in Evidence essays.