Law Word Du Jour

Front 1

leews

Back 1

A “legal exam writing system” created by a Yale law school graduate named Wentworth Miller that helps students get top grades on hypothetical essay exams
Examples:
Do yourself a favor and spend an evening or an afternoon with LEEWS during your first semester of law school. LEEWS will help you get good grades on final exams because it teaches you know how to effectively apply the law to an exam
question.

Front 2

aid and abet

Back 2

To assist someone who commits a crime
Examples:
Under the law, a person can be held responsible for a crime if he directly
committed the crime himself, or if he aids and abets another to commit it. Any
person who knowingly aids and abets the commission of a crime is guilty of that
crime, but the person must knowingly associate with the criminal venture,
participate in it, and try to make it succeed.

Front 3

annuity

Back 3

The right to a fixed sum of money (often under a life insurance
contract)
Examples:
The plaintiff asserts that he was actually fired so that his employer would not
be legally bound to pay his medical retirement annuity. When Mr. Richardson
retired from the United States Postal Service and applied for a disability
retirement annuity, he listed his disabling medical conditions as asthma,
hypertension, hemorrhoids, ulcer, and back pain.

Front 4

parol evidence rule

Back 4

A rule of contract law that oral (as opposed to written)
evidence offered to contradict or amend a written document (e.g., a contract or
a will) is not admissible when the meaning of the written document is
unmistakable or was intended to be final and complete.
Examples:
The judge held that evidence of the alleged oral agreement to limit the debt to
$4,000 did not violate the parol evidence rule because there was no written
contract between the parties. When a party invokes the parol evidence rule, the
judge must decide whether the parties intended the written contract to be final
and complete or whether they intended prior agreements to be part of the final
contract.

Front 5

eggshell plaintiff rule

Back 5

In tort law, the principle that a defendant is liable
for a plaintiff’s unforeseeable and unusual reactions to the defendant’s
negligent and intentional actions
Examples:
If you negligently cause a hemophiliac to bleed severely, the eggshell plaintiff
rule makes you responsible for whatever happens to him, even though you could
not know that the injury would be so severe. When an emotional injury causes
physical manifestations of distress in supersensitive people, the eggshell
plaintiff rule applies.