Trial Preparation

Today I learned a little bit about trial preparation. Although trial is not very common as most cases settle before they reach trial, attorneys still have to prepare in advance.

So for a basic overview:

-The plaintiff sends exhibits/evidence to defense along with a general outline of their argument.
-There are usually hundreds of exhibits
-This outline is basically just witnesses/expert witnesses, evidence they plan on using, etc.
-All exhibits/evidence must provided to the defense and court beforehand and be approved
-The defense then goes through all the exhibits to make sure that they are correct -- mainly that nothing has been deleted or edited by the other side. In the case they were prepping for they found that something had been redacted(deleted) from one of the exhibits.
-They (the defense) then go through the strong and weak points of their case and make a general outline.

Some tips I learned about trial:
-You should try to schedule your witnesses  close to the weekends and/or the end of the case. This allows the jury to more easily remember those witnesses when making their decision or thinking about the case over the weekend break.
-Courtroom software is very useful. It makes it much easier and more organized when trying to show a piece of paper/exhibit. When I went to trial, I remember that in the closing statements I saw, the attorney did not use software and was kind of fumbling around with papers and pointing to things with his pen. So I think that software really makes all the difference.

Side note:
-I'm very interested in the Jury selection process of trials and am hoping that I can experience this in one of the upcoming trials.


Thanks for reading!

What is a Paralegal?

I have had a really tough time writing my blog post for this past week! I honestly did not do much at my internship this week, as nothing too interesting was going on. As I was thinking of what to write about since I had no cool story, I realized that I get the most communication with one of the paralegals at the office.

Going into my SRP, I found myself asking "What exactly is a Paralegal?" I knew that they helped out the attorneys, but I did not know much other than that -- so I am here to tell you. A paralegal, by definition, is a person trained in subsidiary legal matters but not fully qualified as an attorney. No, a paralegal is not a secretary for attorneys - these completely separate, but both important jobs.

Basically, paralegals often do documentation, research, and writing for the lawyers that they work for. For example, they have to write audit response letters for their attorneys clients. These are letters saying how much they company owes in legal fees, and how much they have paid already for the year. One of the main things that I have learned about being a paralegal is that you have to be organized. They usually put everything in labeled binders to be easily found an accessible. Paralegals have many responsibilities that are incredibly vital to the success of the attorneys they work for.

Speaking of binders, one project I had over the week was to help tear all of the papers from a case that settled out of the binders to be shredded. This case, which I believe began in 2010, had at least 1.5 million pieces of paper in it held in huge 5 inch binders (don't quote me on that). In the end 12 trash bins were filled with papers to be shredded (I only filled about one and a half alone). This took up quite a bit of time.

Update on the TV show front:
I should be moving on to watching some of my other shows so I don't run out of time, but I am seriously hooked on suits! I definitely recommend this show! It is pretty dramatic compared to real life and the amount of time they spend in court is way exaggerated, but I find it truly entertaining. Also, I think it does a good job of displaying the difficulty of working in the legal field and how much time work takes up, especially for someone just entering the field.

On a side note, I have decided that in order to gain one more perspective into the media and the legal field, I am going to read a book or two about law. My first choice is John Grisham's "The Pelican Brief." I will write a review/comparison when I have finished it.

Thanks for reading! Talk to you soon.

Some Photos from the Court of Appeals

The Blue Velvet Cushions!

Week 5

Spring Break

The Court of Appeals

It's only my fourth week on site and I have already been able to witness and experience such cool things! Yesterday I got to go to an argument at the Court of Appeals, which was definitely my favorite thing I've done so far. 

Approaching the appellate court building (which is not by the other court buildings?), you can already see that it is much nicer than the lower courts. When I walked into the empty courtroom, I was immediately impressed and intimidated. It was huge! And on top of its size, it was beautiful. The "best" part was that instead of the hard, uncomfortable wooden benches for the audience (mainly me) to sit in, there were benches with very soft blue velvet cushions. 

 An appearance in the appellate court comes about when the losing party from the lower court actions wishes to get that decision overturned. It is not a trial, but rather each side gets 20 minutes to make their argument (the plaintiff can reserve time for rebuttal) in front of three judges.

The most striking thing to me during this time was that the judges truly questioned and argued with the attorneys during their time. During the plaintiff's first argument, the judges really lay into him, making me think that they were leaning away from this argument. However, during the other side, they did the exact same. The judges truly seemed fair in questioning each side equally and not necessarily showing which side they were more in agreement with. 

Comparison to TV:

First off, I do not think that I have ever seen an appellate court case on TV But, other than that, the most noticeable difference that I saw was that in TV shows the judges never have the papers and find out new information during the arguments, often asking counsel to approach and show them a copy of the paper. This is very wrong. In real life, copies of all papers and evidence being used must be submitted to the judge(s) ahead of time.  Furthermore, the judge(s) reads and goes over these papers before the argument or trial.

Thanks for following along with my blog!