VA Bar Evidence 3

Question 1

In a Virginia civil negligence case, the defendant's character for carelessness is offered by the plaintiff to prove the defendant acted carelessly on the day in question. This evidence is:

Accepted Answer

Inadmissible because character evidence is generally excluded in civil cases to prove conduct

Answer

Virginia Rule of Evidence 2:404(a) bars character evidence offered to prove that a person acted in conformity therewith; this prohibition applies in civil cases where character is not itself an element of the claim.

Question 2

In a Virginia rape prosecution, the defendant seeks to introduce evidence that the alleged victim had consensual sex with the defendant on a prior occasion. Under Virginia's rape shield law, this evidence is:

Accepted Answer

Potentially admissible under the specific exception for prior consensual sex between the parties

Answer

Virginia's rape shield statute (Va. Code §18.2-67.7) bars evidence of a victim's prior sexual conduct but carves out a specific exception for prior consensual intercourse between the complaining witness and the accused.

Question 3

The prosecution charges defendant with bank robbery. It seeks to introduce evidence that defendant robbed a different bank two years earlier under FRE 404(b). What is the most proper purpose for admission?

Accepted Answer

To show defendant's identity using a distinctive modus operandi

Answer

Rule 404(b) allows prior bad acts for non-propensity purposes such as identity; if the prior robbery used a highly distinctive method identical to the charged crime, it may be admitted to prove the same perpetrator.

Question 4

A client consults an attorney about drafting a contract, then later sues the attorney for malpractice. The attorney seeks to testify about what the client said during the consultation. The client asserts attorney-client privilege. Which statement is correct?

Accepted Answer

The privilege protects all client communications made for the purpose of obtaining legal advice, even in a malpractice suit

Answer

The attorney-client privilege covers confidential communications made for the purpose of obtaining legal advice; filing a malpractice action does not automatically waive the privilege for all prior communications.

Question 5

Under Virginia's Dead Man's Statute (Va. Code §8.01-397), which witness is incompetent to testify?

Accepted Answer

A surviving party to a transaction with a decedent, testifying against the decedent's estate about that transaction

Answer

Virginia's Dead Man's Statute renders a surviving party to a personal transaction with a deceased incompetent to testify on his or her own behalf about that transaction when offered against the decedent's estate.

(VA Bar) Virginia Bar Exam Practice Test

(VA Bar) Virginia Bar Exam Practice Test

VA Bar Evidence 3