A written law passed by a legislative body at either the federal or state level is called a

• A. Common law
• B. Statute
• C. Proximate cause
• D. Reasonable person test

Answer: (B)

A statute is a written law enacted by a legislative body at the federal or state level. Statutes are created through formal legislative processes and codified in legal codes. This differs from common law, which comes from court decisions and precedents rather than written statutes. Proximate cause is a tort concept about whether the defendant’s actions were a foreseeable cause of harm, and the reasonable person test is a standard used to judge negligence by asking what a reasonable person would have done in similar circumstances. In short, a written law created by the legislature is a statute.