Paralegal Certification (CP / CLA) Substantive Law: Family Law, Real Property, and Estate Planning Syllabus

Substantive Law: Family Law, Real Property, and Estate Planning syllabus — full chapter and topic list

Expand any chapter to see its topics and sub-topics. This is the whole examinable outline for Substantive Law: Family Law, Real Property, and Estate Planning in Paralegal Certification (CP / CLA), not a summary of it.

1. 1

   Family Law

   4 topics

   • Marriage, prenuptial agreements, and annulment
   • Divorce and dissolution
     • Grounds and residency requirements
     • Equitable distribution and community property
   • Child custody and support
     • Best-interest-of-the-child standard
     • Support guidelines and modification
   • Adoption and protective orders
2. 2

   Real Property Law

   4 topics

   • Ownership interests
     • Estates in land and concurrent ownership
     • Easements, covenants, and liens
   • Conveyancing
     • Deeds and recording
     • Title searches and title insurance
   • Real estate transactions
     • Purchase agreements and closings
     • Mortgages and financing
   • Landlord-tenant law
3. 3

   Estate Planning and Probate

   5 topics

   • Wills
     • Requirements for a valid will
     • Codicils and revocation
   • Trusts
     • Revocable and irrevocable trusts
     • Roles of trustee and beneficiary
   • Intestate succession
   • Probate administration
     • Appointment of executor or administrator
     • Inventory, creditor claims, and distribution
   • Powers of attorney and advance directives

Substantive Law: Family Law, Real Property, and Estate Planning flashcards for Paralegal Certification (CP / CLA)

22 of 51 cards from the Substantive Law: Family Law, Real Property, and Estate Planning deck — real questions with worked answers.

1. What is a prenuptial agreement (premarital agreement)?

   A contract entered into by a couple before marriage that defines how property, debts, and spousal support will be handled in the event of divorce or death.

2. Under the Uniform Premarital Agreement Act (UPAA), what two main grounds can make a prenup unenforceable?

   (1) The agreement was not executed voluntarily, or (2) it was unconscionable when executed and a party lacked fair, reasonable disclosure of the other's assets/obligations and did not waive disclosure.

3. What is the legal distinction between an annulment and a divorce?

   An annulment declares that a marriage was never legally valid (void or voidable), treating it as if it never existed; a divorce ends a marriage that was legally valid.

4. Distinguish a void marriage from a voidable marriage.

   A void marriage is invalid from inception and never legally existed (e.g., bigamy, incest). A voidable marriage is valid until one party seeks to annul it (e.g., fraud, duress, underage, impotence).

5. What are the essential elements required to form a valid marriage?

   Legal capacity of both parties (age and mental competence), no existing marriage, parties not too closely related, mutual consent, and compliance with formalities (license and solemnization).

6. What is a common-law marriage?

   A legally recognized marriage (in the minority of states that allow it) formed without a license or ceremony when a couple agrees to be married, cohabits, and holds themselves out to the public as married.

7. What is the difference between divorce and legal separation?

   Divorce legally terminates the marriage so parties may remarry; legal separation is a court order dividing rights and duties while the parties remain legally married and cannot remarry.

8. What is a 'no-fault' divorce?

   A divorce granted without proving marital misconduct, based on grounds such as irreconcilable differences or irretrievable breakdown of the marriage.

9. List common fault-based grounds for divorce.

   Adultery, cruelty (physical or mental), desertion/abandonment, habitual drunkenness or drug addiction, felony conviction/imprisonment, and impotence.

10. What is the difference between community property and equitable distribution states?

    In community property states, marital property is generally split 50/50. In equitable distribution states, marital property is divided fairly (not necessarily equally) based on factors the court weighs.

11. Distinguish marital property from separate property.

    Marital property is acquired by either spouse during the marriage and is subject to division. Separate property is owned before marriage or acquired by gift or inheritance during marriage and generally stays with the owning spouse.

12. What standard governs child custody decisions?

    The 'best interests of the child' standard, which weighs factors like each parent's ability to care for the child, the child's wishes, stability, and the child's relationship with each parent.

13. Distinguish legal custody from physical custody.

    Legal custody is the right to make major decisions about the child (education, health, religion). Physical custody is where the child lives and the day-to-day care. Either can be sole or joint.

14. What is the difference between sole custody and joint custody?

    Sole custody grants legal and/or physical custody to one parent; joint custody divides those rights and/or residence between both parents.

15. What is the primary purpose of child support?

    To ensure both parents financially provide for the child's needs (food, shelter, education, medical care) according to each parent's ability, based on the child's right to support.

16. What is the 'income shares' model of calculating child support?

    The most widely used model; it estimates the amount parents would have spent on the child if intact and divides that obligation between parents in proportion to their respective incomes.

17. What is the difference between an open adoption and a closed adoption?

    In an open adoption the birth and adoptive families share identifying information and may maintain contact; in a closed adoption records are sealed and identities are kept confidential.

18. What legal effect does a final adoption decree have on the biological parents' rights?

    It permanently terminates the biological parents' legal rights and duties and creates a full parent-child legal relationship between the child and the adoptive parents.

19. What is a protective order (restraining order) in a family law context?

    A court order prohibiting an abuser from contacting, approaching, or harming a victim, often issued in domestic violence cases to protect the petitioner and any children.

20. What is the difference between a temporary (ex parte) protective order and a permanent protective order?

    An ex parte order is issued quickly without the respondent present to provide immediate protection; a permanent order is granted after a full hearing where both parties can be heard and lasts a fixed longer term.

21. What is fee simple absolute ownership?

    The most complete form of land ownership: a present, freely transferable estate of potentially infinite duration with no conditions attached.

22. What is a life estate?

    An ownership interest in property that lasts for the duration of a person's life; upon that person's death it passes to a remainderman or reverts to the grantor.

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