BAR EXAM MNEMONICS — THE COMPLETE LIST
Every high-yield bar mnemonic in one place — 113 memory hooks across all subjects, with what each letter stands for and the rule it unlocks. Drill them as flashcards too.
Civil Procedure · Constitutional Law · Contracts & Sales · Criminal Law & Procedure · Evidence · Real Property · Torts · Business Associations · Agency & Partnership · Family Law · Wills, Trusts & Estates · Secured Transactions · Conflict of Laws · Professional Responsibility · Community Property
Civil Procedure
PENS — Personal jurisdiction, Erie doctrine, Notice, Subject-matter jurisdiction (The threshold gateway issues a federal court must clear before it can hear and decide a case.)
FIND — Federal question, In rem/quasi-in-rem, Necessary parties, Diversity (Quick checklist of the doorways into federal subject-matter jurisdiction and related joinder concerns.)
PINTS — Purposeful availment, Injury in forum, Notice, Traditional bases, Substantial fairness (The minimum-contacts and fairness factors for asserting personal jurisdiction over a defendant.)
CRAB — Compulsory counterclaim, Related, Arising from same transaction, Bar if not raised (A counterclaim from the same transaction or occurrence is compulsory and is lost if not pleaded.)
SLAP — Same parties, Litigated, Actually decided, Prior valid final judgment (The elements that trigger issue preclusion (collateral estoppel) from an earlier judgment.)
FREDII — Final judgment, Rendered on merits, Effect, Diversity, Identical claim, Identical parties (The conditions for claim preclusion (res judicata) barring relitigation of the same claim.)
Constitutional Law
SIR — Strict scrutiny, Intermediate scrutiny, Rational basis (The three tiers of judicial review applied to equal-protection and due-process challenges.)
CRINGE — Compelling interest, Religion, Intermediate test, Narrowly tailored, Gender, Essential means (Reminder that suspect classes get strict scrutiny and gender gets intermediate scrutiny under equal protection.)
SAD — Standing, Adverseness, Designated case or controversy (ripeness, mootness, political question) (Justiciability doctrines that determine whether a federal court may reach the merits.)
PIRC — Particularized injury, Causation, Redressability, Concrete (The constitutional requirements a plaintiff must satisfy to have Article III standing.)
DTI — Discriminatory, Traditional time-place-manner, Important state interest (How states may regulate speech in public forums through content-neutral time, place, and manner rules.)
LIPS — Lemon entanglement, Incitement, Profanity, Symbolic conduct (Grab-bag of First Amendment categories where ordinary protection is reduced or specially analyzed.)
PASS — Privileges and immunities, Affecting commerce, State action, Supremacy (Federalism doctrines limiting how states burden interstate activity and rights of out-of-staters.)
FROG — Fighting words, Real threats, Obscenity, Government incitement to lawless action (Speech categories that fall outside First Amendment protection.)
WIN — Wartime exists, Important objective, Narrowly drawn means (The substantially-related-to-important-interest standard for intermediate scrutiny review.)
Contracts & Sales
MY LEGS — Marriage, Year (cannot be performed within one), Land, Executor pays from own funds, Goods 500 dollars or more, Suretyship (The categories of contracts that must be evidenced by a writing under the Statute of Frauds.)
SWAP — Specially manufactured goods, Written confirmation between merchants, Admission in court, Performance (accepted or paid) (The UCC exceptions that take a sale-of-goods contract out of the Statute of Frauds writing requirement.)
MOP — Mutual assent (offer and acceptance), Obligation supported by consideration, no Performance defenses (The core elements required to form an enforceable contract.)
DDIMS — Duress, Deception (misrepresentation), Incapacity, Mistake, Statute (illegality) (The principal defenses that can render an otherwise valid contract void or voidable.)
PAID — Prior dealings, Additional terms, Industry custom, Defining ambiguity (The purposes for which parol evidence is admissible even with a fully integrated writing.)
PERFECT TENDER — Perfect Tender Rule: seller must deliver goods conforming in every respect or buyer may reject (Under the UCC sale-of-goods rule, anything less than perfect conformity lets the buyer reject the whole.)
MAILBOX — Mailbox rule: Acceptance effective on dispatch, all other communications effective on receipt (Timing rule that an acceptance binds the parties the moment it is sent, unlike rejections or revocations.)
FORCE — Frustration, Objective impossibility, Rescission, Conditions, Excuse of performance (Doctrines that discharge a party from contractual duties when performance becomes impractical or pointless.)
BIG — Bargained-for, Inducement, Given (legal value exchanged) (The elements of valid consideration supporting a contract.)
Criminal Law & Procedure
BARRK — Burglary, Arson, Robbery, Rape, Kidnapping (The classic inherently dangerous predicate felonies that support felony-murder liability.)
MR. BAKER — Murder, Robbery, Burglary, Arson, Kidnapping, Escape, Rape (Expanded list of dangerous felonies that can serve as the underlying felony for felony murder.)
FIGS — Fruit, Independent source, Good faith, Standing (or inevitable discovery) (The exceptions and limits to the exclusionary rule that may still allow tainted evidence in.)
ESCAPISt — Exigent circumstances, Search incident to arrest, Consent, Automobile, Plain view, Inventory, Stop and frisk (The recognized exceptions to the Fourth Amendment warrant requirement.)
SILA — Search Incident to Lawful Arrest: wingspan area and immediate control searched without warrant (Police may search the arrestee and the area within reach incident to a lawful custodial arrest.)
AIM — Agreement, Intent to agree, intent to achieve the unlawful objective (plus overt act) (The mental and act elements of criminal conspiracy.)
PINKERTON — Pinkerton rule: each conspirator liable for foreseeable crimes of co-conspirators in furtherance of the conspiracy (A conspirator answers for substantive crimes committed by partners that were foreseeable and in furtherance.)
NAGGED — M'Naghten: did Not know the Act was wrong or did not know the nature and quality of the act due to mental disease (The right-from-wrong cognitive test for the insanity defense.)
PMS — Premeditated, Malice aforethought, intent to cause Serious bodily harm (or depraved heart, or felony murder) (The mental states that elevate an unlawful killing to common-law murder.)
SILENT LAW — Silence right, anything Said used, Lawyer right, Appointed if indigent, Waiver knowing (The substance of the Miranda warnings required before custodial interrogation.)
FAT — Felonious intent, Asportation, Trespassory Taking of property of another (The elements of common-law larceny.)
CABIN — Custody, Authorities, Booking exception, Interrogation, Non-coercive routine questions (When Miranda is and is not triggered, including the routine-booking-question exception.)
BRAWL — Breaking, Residence (dwelling), At night, With intent to commit a felony, Lawless entry (The elements of common-law burglary.)
Evidence
MIMIC — Motive, Intent, Mistake (absence of), Identity, Common plan or scheme (The non-propensity purposes for which other-crimes or other-acts evidence is admissible under Rule 404(b).)
KIPPOMA — Knowledge, Identity, Plan, Preparation, Opportunity, Motive, Absence of mistake (The permissible purposes for admitting prior bad acts without using them to show propensity.)
PARTS — Present sense impression, Admission, Recorded recollection, Then-existing state of mind, Statement against interest (A grouping of common hearsay exceptions tested on the bar.)
DEAD MEN — Dying declaration, Excited utterance, Against interest, Declarant unavailable, Medical diagnosis, Existing state of mind, Now-perceived (present sense) (A mixed list of frequently tested hearsay exceptions.)
SPECIFIC — State of mind, Present sense, Excited utterance, Medical, Recorded recollection, business records, Past recollection, ancient documents (Hearsay exceptions available whether or not the declarant is available to testify.)
RAP — Relevant, Authentic, not unfairly Prejudicial (The baseline admissibility screen every piece of evidence must pass.)
LIPS — Liability insurance, subsequent remedial measures, Plea negotiations, Settlement offers (medical payment offers) (Categories of evidence excluded by public policy to encourage socially desirable conduct.)
CPR — Character, Prior bad acts, Reputation/Opinion methods (Framework for analyzing when and how character evidence may be proven at trial.)
PAW — Personal knowledge, Authentication, Witness competence (Foundational requirements before a witness may testify to a matter.)
DOC — Declarant Unavailable: Death, Out of reach, Claims privilege (or refuses, or lacks memory) (The ways a hearsay declarant becomes unavailable, triggering Rule 804 exceptions.)
CRAP — Conviction (felony or dishonesty), Reputation for untruthfulness, Acts of dishonesty, Prior inconsistent statement (The principal methods for impeaching a witness's credibility.)
Real Property
TTIP — Time, Title, Interest, Possession (the four unities) (The four unities that must coexist to create and maintain a joint tenancy with right of survivorship.)
ENCHO — Exclusive, Notorious (open), Continuous, Hostile, Open and actual possession (The elements a claimant must prove to acquire title by adverse possession.)
OCEAN — Open and notorious, Continuous, Exclusive, Actual, Non-permissive (hostile) (The elements of adverse possession stated as a single memorable word.)
PING — Prescription, Implication, Necessity, Grant (express) (The four ways an easement can be created.)
HENT — Holdover, Estate at will, Notice required, Term of years (the four leasehold estates plus periodic) (The landlord-tenant nonfreehold estates and how each terminates.)
WITCH — Writing, Identify parties, Title (describe land), Consideration, Habendum (signed by grantor) (The formal requirements for a valid deed conveying real property.)
SNT — Subsequent purchaser, Notice, no notice/value, Took for value (race-notice recording acts) (How recording acts protect a later bona fide purchaser against an earlier unrecorded interest.)
TWANG — Touch and concern, Writing, intent to run with land, Notice, privity (Grantee bound) (The requirements for a real covenant or equitable servitude to run with the land and bind successors.)
RAP — Rule Against Perpetuities: no interest valid unless it must vest, if at all, within 21 years of a life in being (Future interests must vest or fail within twenty-one years after a relevant life in being at creation.)
FIRE — Fee simple, Interest measured by life, Remainder, Executory interest (The basic present and future estates in land that bar questions test.)
Torts
FIB — False light, Intrusion upon seclusion, public disclosure of private facts, appropriation (and false light), Branding/Benefit (The four invasion-of-privacy torts (intrusion, disclosure, false light, appropriation).)
DBCD — Duty, Breach, Causation, Damages (The four elements a plaintiff must establish for a negligence claim.)
FAT IBC — False imprisonment, Assault, Trespass to land, Intentional infliction of emotional distress, Battery, Conversion (trespass to chattels) (The seven traditional intentional torts.)
PIN — Publication, Identifiable, defamatory statement of Negligence/fault about plaintiff (The elements of a defamation claim.)
PASS — Public figure, Actual malice, Substantial truth, States-of-mind fault (The heightened fault standards a public-figure defamation plaintiff must meet under the First Amendment.)
FRAUD — False representation, Reliance, Awareness (scienter), Untruth induced action, Damages (The elements of intentional misrepresentation (fraud/deceit).)
CRIB — Consent, Recapture/Privilege, Insanity not a defense, By self-defense or defense of others (The principal defenses and privileges available against intentional torts.)
DURP — Defective, Unreasonably dangerous, Reached plaintiff unchanged, Proximate cause of injury (The elements of a strict products liability claim.)
FIT — Foreseeable plaintiff, Intervening cause, Thin-skull rule (Proximate cause concepts limiting the scope of a negligent defendant's liability.)
RIL — Res Ipsa Loquitur: accident type that ordinarily does not occur absent negligence, instrumentality in defendant's control, plaintiff not at fault (Lets a jury infer breach when the very nature of an accident implies someone was negligent.)
Business Associations
BJR — Business Judgment Rule: presume directors acted on an Informed basis, in Good faith, with honest belief the action served the corporation (Courts presume directors' decisions were made loyally and carefully and will not second-guess sound judgment.)
DOC — Duty of care, Obedience, duty of loyalty (Conflict of interest) (The core fiduciary duties directors and officers owe the corporation.)
WIN — Wholly owned undercapitalization, Ignoring formalities, Nominee/alter ego (piercing factors) (Factors courts weigh in deciding whether to pierce the corporate veil and hold owners personally liable.)
FAIR — Full disclosure, Approved by disinterested directors/shareholders, Inherently fair to corporation, Ratified (How an interested-director transaction can survive a duty-of-loyalty challenge.)
DERIV — Demand on board, Exhaustion, Representative of corporation, Injury to corporation, Verified standing (The procedural requirements a shareholder must satisfy to bring a derivative suit.)
CRUD — Charter (articles), Registered agent, Underwriters not required, Directors named (formation steps) (The basic steps and documents required to validly form a corporation.)
Agency & Partnership
AIR — Actual express authority, Implied authority, Ratification (plus apparent) (The ways an agent can bind a principal: actual, apparent, and ratified authority.)
ABC — Apparent authority, By manifestation to third party, Caused reasonable belief in agent's authority (Apparent authority arises from the principal's outward manifestations creating reasonable third-party belief.)
FROLIC — Frolic (own purpose, outside scope) versus detour, Reasonably within Of-the-job conduct, Liable if within scope (respondeat superior) (Distinguishing a frolic from a detour to decide if an employer is vicariously liable for an employee's tort.)
PROFIT — Profits shared, Right to manage, Ownership intent, Financial contribution, Intent to associate, Title held jointly (Factors showing the parties formed a partnership by carrying on a business for profit as co-owners.)
WUD — Wrongful dissociation, Unanimous consent to continue, Dissolution and winding up (How a partner's departure affects continuation, dissolution, and winding up of a partnership.)
LOCO — Loyalty, Obedience, Care, accounting (Open books) (The fiduciary duties partners and agents owe to one another and to the principal.)
Family Law
CRIB — Consent, Reciprocal capacity, Intent to marry, no Bar (no bigamy or prohibited degree) (The requirements for a valid ceremonial marriage.)
BIC — Best Interests of the Child: health, wishes, parental fitness, stability, relationships (The governing standard for child-custody determinations.)
SLAP — Standard of living, Length of marriage, Age and health, Property and earning capacity (Factors courts weigh in setting spousal support (alimony).)
FAULT — Fraud, Adultery, Unsound mind/duress, Lacking capacity, Time-barred (annulment grounds) (Grounds that make a marriage voidable or void for annulment.)
COIN — Conduct of parties, Origin of property, Intent to gift, Need and contributions (Factors in equitable distribution of marital property at divorce.)
Wills, Trusts & Estates
SWINT — Settlor capacity, Writing/words of trust, Intent to create trust, Named beneficiary, Trust property (res) with Trustee (The requisites for creating a valid express trust.)
WICS — Writing, Intent (testamentary), Capacity, Signed and witnessed (attestation) (The formal execution requirements for a valid attested will.)
SODA — Subsequent will, Operation of law, Destruction (physical act), Another revocation method (The recognized methods of revoking a will.)
ARDS — Ademption, Revocation, Disclaimer, Slayer/Survival rules (Doctrines that change or defeat what a beneficiary actually takes under a will.)
PAID — Per stirpes, Anti-lapse, Issue (descendants), Distribution by representation (How a gift to a predeceased beneficiary passes to that beneficiary's descendants.)
CALM — Cy pres, Application near as possible, Lapsed charitable purpose, Modification by court (The cy pres doctrine reforming a failed charitable trust to a similar lawful purpose.)
PIPL — Prudent investor, Impartiality, Productivity, Loyalty (trustee duties) (Core fiduciary duties a trustee owes in administering the trust.)
Secured Transactions
PAVE — Possession or control, Authenticated security agreement, Value given, rights in collateral (Encumbered) (The requirements for a security interest to attach and become enforceable.)
FAVE — Filing, Attachment, Value, Effectiveness (perfection requirements) (The conditions that must be met before a security interest is perfected against third parties.)
PMSI — Purchase-Money Security Interest: secures the price of the very collateral it covers, with super-priority (A PMSI in goods can take priority over earlier-filed security interests if perfected within the grace period.)
PEACE — Possession, Encumbrance, Acceleration, Commercially reasonable sale, no breach of the peace, Election of remedies (A secured creditor's rights and limits on default, including self-help repossession without breaching the peace.)
FILE — File first, In good faith, Lien priority, Earliest to perfect prevails (The general first-to-file-or-perfect priority rule among competing secured creditors.)
Conflict of Laws
VIA — Vested rights (First Restatement), Interest analysis (governmental interest), most significant Approach (Second Restatement) (The major modern and traditional approaches to choosing which jurisdiction's law applies.)
FF&C — Full Faith and Credit: states must recognize valid final judgments on the merits from sister states (A valid out-of-state judgment must be honored and enforced by every other state.)
PINS — Personal jurisdiction, Issue on merits, Notice given, Subject-matter jurisdiction (validity of foreign judgment) (What makes a sister-state judgment entitled to full faith and credit.)
SLIP — Situs for land, Lex loci delicti for torts, Place of contracting/performance, Procedure governed by forum (Traditional vested-rights choice-of-law rules by category of dispute.)
CRAFT — Center of gravity, Relationship most significant, Application of forum interests, Fairness, Territorial contacts (The most-significant-relationship factors under the Second Restatement.)
Professional Responsibility
CLIP — Communication, Loyalty/conflicts, Independent judgment, Protect confidences (Core duties a lawyer owes to a client under the ethics rules.)
FRAUD — Future harm prevention, Reasonable belief of death or substantial bodily harm, Advice sought, Used services, Defense in dispute (confidentiality exceptions) (The circumstances permitting a lawyer to reveal otherwise confidential client information.)
CIA — Confidentiality, Independence, Avoid conflicts of interest (The pillars of a lawyer's fiduciary obligations to current clients.)
SAFE — Separate account, Avoid commingling, Funds segregated, Earned fees only withdrawn (The trust-account rules governing how a lawyer must hold client funds.)
WAIVE — Written disclosure, Adequate information, Independent counsel advised, Voluntary consent, Effect explained (What is required for a client to give informed consent waiving a conflict of interest.)
CANDID — Correct false evidence, Avoid frivolous claims, No false statements, Disclose adverse authority, Inform tribunal, Duty of candor (A lawyer's duties of candor toward the tribunal.)
Community Property
PEREIRA — Pereira: pay community a fair return on separate capital, the rest is separate (manager's effort drove growth) (Apportions business growth to the community as reasonable interest when spousal labor drove the increase.)
VAN CAMP — Van Camp: value the spouse's services as community wages, remainder stays separate (capital drove growth) (Apportions business growth by valuing labor as community wages when the capital itself drove the increase.)
SAIL — Separate before marriage, Acquired by gift or inheritance, Income from separate, Liabilities pre-marriage (What counts as a spouse's separate property rather than community property.)
TIME — Tracing, Inception of title, Marital labor, Earnings characterization (Methods for characterizing and tracing assets as community or separate property.)
MOORE — Moore/Marsden: pro-rata share of equity to community based on principal paid down with community funds (Allocates appreciation in separately-titled property to the community in proportion to community contributions.)