MISSOURI BAR EXAM DISTINCTIONS — ONE-PAGE CHEAT SHEET
Condensed companion to the Missouri Bar Exam Distinctions long outline.
1. EXAM FORMAT
UBE state · MBE/MEE/MPT weighted 50/30/20 · minimum passing score 260 · score transferable to/from other UBE jurisdictions · PLUS mandatory Missouri Educational Component Test (MECT)—online, open-book modules and assessments on Missouri-specific law and practice, a completion/competency requirement separate from the UBE result · plus MPRE + character/fitness · essays graded on national majority law—reserve Missouri rules for the MECT and practice.
2. CIVIL PROCEDURE
Personal-injury SOL 5 years (§516.120) · written-contract SOL 10 years (§516.110) · med-mal 2 years (§516.105) · defamation 2 years · Missouri Supreme Court Rules of Civil Procedure resemble but are not identical to the Federal Rules · circuit courts are courts of general jurisdiction · enumerated long-arm (§506.500) construed to due-process limits · detailed venue statutes with special tort-venue rules.
3. EVIDENCE
NO codified FRE-style evidence code — Missouri evidence is largely common-law and statutory, developed case-by-case (cannot simply cite "Rule 803") · Daubert-style reliability standard adopted by statute (§490.065) for most civil cases · statutory physician-patient privilege (§491.060) with no FRE analog; spousal and attorney-client privileges also statutory.
4. FAMILY LAW
No-fault: court dissolves on finding the marriage irretrievably broken; if a spouse denies the breakdown, the court weighs statutory factors including marital misconduct · equitable distribution (not community property)—and the court may consider marital misconduct in dividing property · separate property (premarital, gift, inheritance) set aside to the owner · Form 14 child-support worksheet on both incomes (rebuttable only if unjust/inappropriate) · maintenance under §452.335 on need and ability, modifiable or non-modifiable.
5. WILLS / TRUSTS / ESTATES
NON-UPC for wills/intestacy (ch. 474), but Missouri Uniform Trust Code adopted for trusts · will = testator's signature + 2 witnesses (§474.320) · NO holographic wills · fixed statutory elective share (§474.160): ½ if no lineal descendants, ⅓ if descendants survive—NOT the UPC sliding scale · intestate spouse (§474.010) takes all if no descendants; if descendants are all the spouse's, first $20,000 + ½ the balance; otherwise ½ · homestead, exempt-property, and family allowances for spouse/minor children.
6. REAL PROPERTY
Notice recording act (§442.400)—later purchaser must take without notice AND record first · adverse possession 10 years (§516.010) with the usual elements under claim of right · conveyancing by deed of trust with a trustee's power of sale · nonjudicial trustee's-sale foreclosure is the dominant, fast method · effectively NO general post-sale redemption (narrow one-year exception where the lender buys and the borrower gives advance notice and posts a bond).
7. TORTS
PURE comparative negligence (Gustafson v. Benda)—plaintiff recovers a reduced share even when more than 50% at fault · join