JudicialRestraints posted:

Also, thread, apparently I'm supposed to do jury instructions and a proposed verdict form. I am completely lost. Help.

Mookie posted:

While I was in law school, this confrontation clause cases, as well as the Sentencing Guideline cases, were still new and/or unsettled. It was pretty amusing to watch people in class have a knee-jerk "Scalia is in favor of this, so it must be bad" reaction, without realizing that these decisions greatly expanded the protections afforded to criminal defendants, which these same students (and one or two professors) were typically in favor of.

evilweasel posted:

if you got worse than a 175 you're barely smarter than a rock

fougera posted:

I'm writing a cover letter to carpet bomb firms with. How do I say something particular about the firm that interests me when they all have the same practice areas?

Draile posted:

"You are prosecuting a man for stealing an old lady's purse. There are no witnesses other than the victim, but the lady got a great view of the defendant and has rock-solid testimony. Defense counsel has indicated to you that the defendant is willing to plead out. The day before the defendant is scheduled to give his plea, the lady has a heart attack and dies. Defense counsel doesn't know about this. Do you disclose the death of the lady to defense counsel, thereby threatening your case and his plea, or do you not make the disclosure and take the plea?"

holybartender posted:

Out of curiosity what is the answer?

lipstick thespian posted:

How would you be able to know the answer without knowing wheter the guy was a minority or not?

nm posted:

If you are asked a question like "Is your witness ready?" you probably have to.

NoodleBaby posted:

One of my classmates signed up for the Marine Corp after 1L year, so he spent his summers doing Marine Corp poo poo. He was all signed up for Marine JAG, just had to pass the bar and he was in.

So on the first day of the exam, about an hour in, he freaks out, starts crying and runs out of the room, never to return.

Yay! Let's put THAT guy in high pressure situations AND give him a gun with which to deal with them!

(Actually that is exactly what he's doing: the Marines took pity on him, which I didn't know they did, and let him retake in February. He is now deployed in Iraq, presumably carrying a weapon at all times. Wouldn't want to be his bunkmate).

Lykourgos posted:

while we're on the topic, or at least we were earlier, do defence attorneys at least know they're supposed to quit the case or plead guilty if they know their client did it? Or do they not have that rule in America, idk

Lykourgos posted:

There is no honour in defending a lie knowingly made, or actively deceiving the honourable judge presiding.

billion dollar bitch posted:

A seventeen year old defendant displays a weapon, says, "empty your loving pockets," and takes a cellphone off the victim. Upon collecting the phone, he kicks the victim's brother, runs off, and is apprehended by a police officer. He has the cellphone and a BB pistol on him. He has a prior youthful offender adjudication for Robbery in the First Degree, and was on probation when he committed the crime.

What would you charge, and what sentence would you give? This is in NYC.

Lykourgos posted:

Yeh, no. My views have worked out p well so far, and the judges and ASAs I've worked with have all been great. A learned society of Olympian judges and prosecutorial titans is not some unrealistic vision. You'd be half way there if you just partition the land and enfeoff judges as earls and dukes. Imagine a hearing before the Honourable Duke of Cicero, or perhaps spending time in chambers with the Earl of Lincoln Parkshire.

Lykourgos posted:

never liked latins much, but if you have to say it: they would be a self regulating body of learned gentlemen, divorced from the common, monetary society. Like Spartans, dealing in iron spits and dedicating themselves to the good life; their feudal estates tilled by helots, and forum servers kept online by perioikoi. With such well raised men in charge, whatever could go wrong. Mistakes are ungentlemanly.

lol yes a serf is going to watch them

Lykourgos posted:

If you think that video is on topic then you are seriously troubled. I did a short pupilage with people you might consider to be effete, entitled and insular, and they were nothing like that. I don't take them as my model, but that video is so far from the truth it hurts.

nm posted:

Yes, you can tell them it is a really lovely idea, but every once in a while the dumbass wants to testify that the officer who testified wasn't the officer who stopped him for DUI. He is an impostor.
Yes, this did happen, and surprisingly, he was convicted.

terrorist ambulance posted:

I started some of the posts made by the guy with the fiestacat avatar in the legal questions thread and god I'm never doing defense work ever ever

GamingHyena posted:

Cases like this are why I'm glad I no longer do criminal law.

Chakron posted:

poofactory posted:

Hey guys, when sending my office your unsolicited resumes, please address it to someone in particular and include a cover letter so we at least know for which job you are begging.

Phil Moscowitz posted:

Here's a hypo for you bar exam types.

Driver's car catches on fire while he's driving it down the interstate, so he pulls off onto the shoulder and gets out and calls 911. Traffic is very light and cars are passing without any problem. The car burns for ten minutes or so and the police arrive, followed almost immediately by the fire department. The police close down traffic on the interstate completely while the fire is put out and a wrecker shows up to load the burned husk.

Plaintiff pulls up to the accident scene and stops in the standstill traffic behind the police barricade. He's stuck in traffic for about 5 minutes at a dead stop when suddenly he's rear-ended by Trucker, and now he claims injuries from the accident.

Who's liable for Plaintiff's damages?

Abugadu posted:

I'm just surprised private firms didn't think of it before the US Atty's office.

Abugadu posted:

Yeah, but you could have the volunteers doing something harmless like doc review, or at least have their work looked over before being sent out the door.

SWATJester posted:

Also, where can I apply for that prosecutor position because I'll do that poo poo.

SWATJester posted:

I'm rusty on crim pro, but won't that count as a de facto arrest? I don't see any exceptions to the warrant requirement in play here, making any statements the fruit of an illegal seizure, regardless of Miranda.

Abugadu posted:

it may be a sign that you aren't reviewing your own work carefully when you hand a judge a set of jury instructions for Official Misconduct as a misdemeanor that include provisions for the death penalty.

The judge asked him where he got it from, and he said from the JI's of the previous law clerk (which he did not). The judge called him on it, then reamed him.

Alaemon posted:

Erstwhile Police Officer...
Defendant in handcuffs and no intention of letting him leave...
A) Strike up a conversation about illegal activities?

joat mon posted:

And Defendant struck up the conversation with the cops; since he "voluntarily initiated" the conversation, they didn't need to Mirandize him.

Alaemon posted:

No he didn't.

Baruch Obamawitz posted:

I also didn't really even open my books.

TheMadMilkman posted:

By the way, if law school doesn't kill all the relationships in your life, your first job will.

Lykourgos posted:

Was your job at some lovely bigmidlaw firm?

nm posted:

[Working] for a PD's office.
The good news for me is I had no personal life to kill.

nm posted:

Being a prosecutor is easier than being a PD though. I've done both.

qwertyman posted:

Please let me know if any of you have ever seen an appellate brief this awful.

GamingHyena posted:

Welp, got handed another batch of files on Friday so it looks like I'll be spending another weekend at the office

Is it possible to be burned out after 3 years? gently caress this profession.

Well I mean who doesn't enjoy a 7 day work week?

I seriously think I'm getting burned out. Older lawyers, does it ever get better?

nm posted:

I wrote a memo to the court (no, not a motion) that got an (alleged*) sex offender's case dropped. That was pretty rewarding.

nm posted:

You people just need to stop doing civil law.

JudicialRestraints posted:

You shouldn't have done that. He was probably guilty of something.

Save me Jeebus posted:

I just plowed my savings into a taco stand startup.

Jalopnik posted:

Kate Carrara runs the Buttercream Cupcake Lady service out of a truck she trundles through Philadelphia every day, announcing her location via Twitter. That's how police knew where she'd be at noon on Tuesday, when they surrounded her converted postal truck with a blockade.

"Three enforcement guys came out with badges blazing," Carrara told the Philadelphia Daily News. "Scared the crap out of me. The three cops with them were looking at me like, 'We can't believe we're doing this.'

"And I'm like, there's crack deals a block away and three cops are surrounding the Cupcake Lady? I mean, really?"

The officers impounded the van and drove away with dozens of uneaten desserts, indifferent to the city's never-ceasing demand for cream cheese.

In any other place, someone who calls themself the Cupcake Lady might have folded like softened butter. But this is Philadelphia, and so of course the woman who sells cupcakes from a truck is also a lawyer with 4,000 followers on Twitter, with whom she was quickly plotting escape scenarios.

Lykourgos posted:

Yes, who doesn't love a zerg rush of senseless reasonable doubt arguments, look lively lads! Defense attorneys have the right to pee their pants, doesn't mean they ought to do it. Not every day, repeatedly, at least.

Incredulous Red posted:

Question: can we make select students eligible to work as strippers as part of our law school work/study program?

joat mon posted:

But make sure you correctly name the job for which you are begging:

SWATJester posted:

What is the information on this book? Name, author, publisher, edition, etc. Because seriously I am going to hit every rare book store offline and on the web until I find a copy.

OptimistPrime posted:

Now I get to spend the time between today and my start date drunk off my rear end,

Phil Moscowitz posted:

Purchased that loving awesome book.

Macnigore posted:

Choice time.

J Miracle posted:

I don't know what's worse, the fact that the professor still solicits public-policy debate or the fact that there are still 3Ls with a gunner mentality that actually engage in it.

Phil Moscowitz posted:

You guys might like this, part of a pro se filing from a looney fringe type. I have the rest but it's just a bunch of poo poo about how JOHN PETERS is not the true person, while John Peters is the real party in interest, and the corporate entity known as "the United States of America" has no personal subject matter jurisdiction over the real party in interest since he is a sovereign "American Citizen" as opposed to a "U.S. Citizen"

Ainsley McTree posted:

If you're the judge, what do you even do with that

Incredulous Red posted:

your mother stops bugging you to go to law school

nm posted:

I'm glad my mommy is a hippy.

Ainsley McTree posted:

I think Legal Rebel is just code for "I'm a smug douche"

Legal Rebels posted:

I am a proud member of America's essential profession. Without lawyers and the rule of law, a free, fair and open society is not sustainable.

I recognize that the legal profession's traditions - the world's most respected legal education system, most successful law firms and fairest court system - were once radical innovations.

In this time of economic crisis, I am committed to improving those institutions and creating innovation in the practice of law. I will question and, when appropriate, change the status quo. And I will use technology to serve my clients and society.

I'll help remake the profession I hold dear so it can continue to deliver on America's promise.

I'm an innovator. A maverick. A pathfinder.

I am a Legal Rebel.

SWATJester posted:

"Ladies and gentleman of the jury, we can't make Defendant's medical recovery any less painful. We aren't miracle workers. But we can compensate him for the pain and suffering that he went through. Imagine you had to wake up every day in pain. Imagine that you were unable to work for <insert lost wages time here>. What price tag would you put on that? What would you want if you were in their situation? $500,000 can't bring my client back to health. But it can compensate him for the wrongs that have been done."

Stuff like that.