NC PARALEGAL ACTUAL EVALUATION QUESTIONS
AND ANSWERS SURE A+
✔✔of counsel - ✔✔An attorney who has been employed to aid in the preparation and
management of a particular case but who is not the principal attorney in the action.
✔✔offer - ✔✔A promise or commitment to do or refrain from doing some specified thing
in the future.
✔✔offeree - ✔✔The party to whom the offer is made.
✔✔offeror - ✔✔The party making the offer.
✔✔office manager - ✔✔An administrative employee who manages the day-to-day
operations of a business firm. In larger law firms, office managers are usually called
legal administrators.
✔✔officer - ✔✔A person hired by corporate directors to assist in the management of the
day-to-day operations of the corporation. Corporate officers include the corporate
president, vice president, secretary, treasurer, and possibly others, such as a chief
financial officer and chief executive officer. Corporate officers are employees of the
corporation and subject to employment contracts.
✔✔online dispute resolution (ODR) - ✔✔The resolution of disputes with the assistance
of an organization that offers dispute-resolution services via the internet.
✔✔open-ended question - ✔✔A question phrased in such a way that it elicits a
relatively unguided and lengthy narrative response.
✔✔opening statement - ✔✔An attorney's statement to the jury at the beginning of the
trial. The attorney briefly outlines the evidence that will be offered during the trial and
the legal theory that will be pursued.
,✔✔opinion - ✔✔A statement by the court setting forth the applicable law and the
reasons for its decision in a case.
✔✔opinion (advisory) letter - ✔✔A letter from an attorney to a client containing a legal
opinion on an issue raised by the client's question or legal claim. The opinion is based
on a detailed analysis of the law.
✔✔order of attachment - ✔✔Court document which orders property seizure to satisfy a
judgment.
✔✔ordinance - ✔✔An order, rule, or law enacted by a municipal or county government
to govern a local matter unaddressed by state or federal legislation.
✔✔original jurisdiction - ✔✔The power of a court to take a case, try it, and decide it.
✔✔overtime wages - ✔✔Wages paid to workers who are paid an hourly wage rate to
compensate them for overtime work (hours worked beyond forty hours per week).
Under federal law, overtime wages are at least one and a half times the regular hourly
wage rate.
✔✔paralegal (or legal assistant) - ✔✔A person qualified by education, training, or work
experience who is employed or retained by a lawyer, law office, corporation,
governmental agency, or other entity who performs specifically delegated substantive
legal work, for which a lawyer is responsible.
✔✔parallel citation - ✔✔A second (or third) citation for a given case. When a case is
published in more than one reporter, each citation is a parallel citation to the other(s).
✔✔parole evidence rule - ✔✔Agreement between two parties, creating an enforceable
obligation to do, or to refrain from doing, a particular thing. (I thought this had to do with
what evidence you can and can't bring in breach of contract disputes when they're
arguing the terms of the contract...)
✔✔partner - ✔✔A person who has undertaken to operate a business jointly with one or
more other persons. Each partner is a co-owner of the business firm.
✔✔partnership - ✔✔An association of two or more persons to carry on as co-owners a
business for profit.
✔✔party - ✔✔With respect to lawsuits, the plaintiff or the defendant. Some cases
involve multiple parties (more than one plaintiff or defendant).
, ✔✔passive listening - ✔✔The act of listening attentively to the speaker's message and
responding to the speaker by providing verbal or nonverbal cues that encourage the
speaker to continue; in effect, saying "I'm listening, please go on."
✔✔patent - ✔✔A government grant that gives an inventor the exclusive right or privilege
to make, use, or sell that invention for a limited time period. (HOW LONG?)
✔✔paternity suit - ✔✔A lawsuit brought by an unmarried mother to establish that a
certain male is the biological father of her child. DNA testing or a comparable procedure
is often used to determine paternity.
✔✔peremptory challenge - ✔✔A voir dire challenge to exclude a potential juror from
serving on the jury without any supporting reason or cause. Peremptory challenges
based on racial or gender criteria are illegal.
✔✔performance - ✔✔In contract law, the fulfillment of one's duties arising under a
contract with another; the normal way of discharging one's contractual obligations.
✔✔personal liability - ✔✔An individual's personal responsibility for debts or obligations.
The owners of sole proprietorships and partnerships are personally liable for the debts
and obligations incurred by their business firms. If their firms go bankrupt or cannot
meet debts as they become due, the owners will be personally responsible for paying
the debts.
✔✔personal property - ✔✔Any property that is not real property. Generally any property
that is movable or intangible is classified as personal property.
✔✔personal representative - ✔✔A person who manages the financial affairs of another
person who is unable to do so.
✔✔persuasive authority - ✔✔Any legal authority, or source of law, that a court may look
to for guidance but on which it need not rely in making its decision. Persuasive
authorities include cases from other jurisdictions or secondary sources of law, such as
scholarly treatises.
✔✔petition for divorce - ✔✔The document filed with the court to initiate divorce
proceedings. The requirements governing the form and content of a divorce petition
very from state to state.
✔✔petty offense - ✔✔In criminal law, the least serious kind of wrong, such as a traffic or
building-code violation.
✔✔plain-meaning rule - ✔✔A rule of statutory interpretation. If the meaning of a statute
is clear on its face, then that is the interpretation the court will give to it; inquiry into the
legislative history of the statute will not be undertaken.
AND ANSWERS SURE A+
✔✔of counsel - ✔✔An attorney who has been employed to aid in the preparation and
management of a particular case but who is not the principal attorney in the action.
✔✔offer - ✔✔A promise or commitment to do or refrain from doing some specified thing
in the future.
✔✔offeree - ✔✔The party to whom the offer is made.
✔✔offeror - ✔✔The party making the offer.
✔✔office manager - ✔✔An administrative employee who manages the day-to-day
operations of a business firm. In larger law firms, office managers are usually called
legal administrators.
✔✔officer - ✔✔A person hired by corporate directors to assist in the management of the
day-to-day operations of the corporation. Corporate officers include the corporate
president, vice president, secretary, treasurer, and possibly others, such as a chief
financial officer and chief executive officer. Corporate officers are employees of the
corporation and subject to employment contracts.
✔✔online dispute resolution (ODR) - ✔✔The resolution of disputes with the assistance
of an organization that offers dispute-resolution services via the internet.
✔✔open-ended question - ✔✔A question phrased in such a way that it elicits a
relatively unguided and lengthy narrative response.
✔✔opening statement - ✔✔An attorney's statement to the jury at the beginning of the
trial. The attorney briefly outlines the evidence that will be offered during the trial and
the legal theory that will be pursued.
,✔✔opinion - ✔✔A statement by the court setting forth the applicable law and the
reasons for its decision in a case.
✔✔opinion (advisory) letter - ✔✔A letter from an attorney to a client containing a legal
opinion on an issue raised by the client's question or legal claim. The opinion is based
on a detailed analysis of the law.
✔✔order of attachment - ✔✔Court document which orders property seizure to satisfy a
judgment.
✔✔ordinance - ✔✔An order, rule, or law enacted by a municipal or county government
to govern a local matter unaddressed by state or federal legislation.
✔✔original jurisdiction - ✔✔The power of a court to take a case, try it, and decide it.
✔✔overtime wages - ✔✔Wages paid to workers who are paid an hourly wage rate to
compensate them for overtime work (hours worked beyond forty hours per week).
Under federal law, overtime wages are at least one and a half times the regular hourly
wage rate.
✔✔paralegal (or legal assistant) - ✔✔A person qualified by education, training, or work
experience who is employed or retained by a lawyer, law office, corporation,
governmental agency, or other entity who performs specifically delegated substantive
legal work, for which a lawyer is responsible.
✔✔parallel citation - ✔✔A second (or third) citation for a given case. When a case is
published in more than one reporter, each citation is a parallel citation to the other(s).
✔✔parole evidence rule - ✔✔Agreement between two parties, creating an enforceable
obligation to do, or to refrain from doing, a particular thing. (I thought this had to do with
what evidence you can and can't bring in breach of contract disputes when they're
arguing the terms of the contract...)
✔✔partner - ✔✔A person who has undertaken to operate a business jointly with one or
more other persons. Each partner is a co-owner of the business firm.
✔✔partnership - ✔✔An association of two or more persons to carry on as co-owners a
business for profit.
✔✔party - ✔✔With respect to lawsuits, the plaintiff or the defendant. Some cases
involve multiple parties (more than one plaintiff or defendant).
, ✔✔passive listening - ✔✔The act of listening attentively to the speaker's message and
responding to the speaker by providing verbal or nonverbal cues that encourage the
speaker to continue; in effect, saying "I'm listening, please go on."
✔✔patent - ✔✔A government grant that gives an inventor the exclusive right or privilege
to make, use, or sell that invention for a limited time period. (HOW LONG?)
✔✔paternity suit - ✔✔A lawsuit brought by an unmarried mother to establish that a
certain male is the biological father of her child. DNA testing or a comparable procedure
is often used to determine paternity.
✔✔peremptory challenge - ✔✔A voir dire challenge to exclude a potential juror from
serving on the jury without any supporting reason or cause. Peremptory challenges
based on racial or gender criteria are illegal.
✔✔performance - ✔✔In contract law, the fulfillment of one's duties arising under a
contract with another; the normal way of discharging one's contractual obligations.
✔✔personal liability - ✔✔An individual's personal responsibility for debts or obligations.
The owners of sole proprietorships and partnerships are personally liable for the debts
and obligations incurred by their business firms. If their firms go bankrupt or cannot
meet debts as they become due, the owners will be personally responsible for paying
the debts.
✔✔personal property - ✔✔Any property that is not real property. Generally any property
that is movable or intangible is classified as personal property.
✔✔personal representative - ✔✔A person who manages the financial affairs of another
person who is unable to do so.
✔✔persuasive authority - ✔✔Any legal authority, or source of law, that a court may look
to for guidance but on which it need not rely in making its decision. Persuasive
authorities include cases from other jurisdictions or secondary sources of law, such as
scholarly treatises.
✔✔petition for divorce - ✔✔The document filed with the court to initiate divorce
proceedings. The requirements governing the form and content of a divorce petition
very from state to state.
✔✔petty offense - ✔✔In criminal law, the least serious kind of wrong, such as a traffic or
building-code violation.
✔✔plain-meaning rule - ✔✔A rule of statutory interpretation. If the meaning of a statute
is clear on its face, then that is the interpretation the court will give to it; inquiry into the
legislative history of the statute will not be undertaken.
