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FACT-WRITNG & PERSUAS LEGL DOC (ADVOCACY AND LEGAL SKILLS - 7080)
2 credits
This course provides advanced instruction on how to deliver the client's story to a court in complaints, affidavits, and statements of the case. Students will learn narrative structure theory, and will work with case files and records to develop the storylines necessary to support legal claims and defenses. Grades will be based on classroom writing exercises, and first drafts and rewrites of three legal documents. This course satisfies the Advanced Practice Writing Requirement.
Elyse Pepper
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FAMILY LAW (FAMILY LAW - 1000)
3 credits
This course explores the nature of marriage and the family as legal institutions. Beginning with the establishment of a family unit through either ceremonial or common-law marriage, the course considers the legal relationship among various members of the family, and examines the problems arising on disruption of the family unit through separation, annulment, or divorce. Grades are based upon a final examination.
Elaine M. Chiu
Theresa A Hughes
Anita S. Krishnakumar
Alan David Scheinkman
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FAMILY LAW PRACTICE (FAMILY LAW - 1010)
2 credits
This course will examine practical aspects of matrimonial trial practice, pleadings, motion practice, examinations before trial, tax aspects and equitable distribution. Separation agreements, custody and adoptions will also be studied. Grades are based upon the papers submitted and the skills demonstrated.
Prerequisite: FAMILY LAW
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FAMILY VIOLENCE & SEX. ASSAULT (CRIMINAL LAW - 1030)
2 credits
This course will survey the legal issues involved with domestic violence, child abuse and sexual assault cases. The course will focus on such issues as the battered women's syndrome, child abuse prosecutions, shaken baby syndrome, date rape and forcible rape. The course will be taught through lectures, videotapes, guest speakers and interactive mock trial of an actual child abuse rape case. Grades are based upon class participation, a mock-trial exercise and a final examination.
Prerequisite: EVIDENCE
Marjory D. Fisher
Rhonnie B. Jaus
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FED. CRIMINAL PRACTICE WRITING (ADVOCACY AND LEGAL SKILLS - 8030)
2 credits
This course is intended to expose students to the investigative process and to develop the students' ability to write affidavits, charging documents (complaints and indictments), motions (suppression and sentencing), memoranda, and other writings in a "paper" prosecution. Students, as a group, will be required to interview the investigating special agent and the defendant, as well as review the case file for pertinent case information. Students will be expected to utilize legal research, required readings, and information provided by witnesses and the case files to prepare the writing assignments. The course will utilize an evolving fact pattern during the semester, and students will assume the role of either prosecutor or defense attorney for several assignments. Students will have one week to return assignments, though with respect to some assignments students will submit drafts prior to submitting the students' final work product. Additionally, it is expected that when preparing responses, the students will respond to earlier submissions of the students' peers. The final grade will be based cumulatively upon class participation and written assignments, with more complicated assignments carrying greater weight. This course satisfies the Advanced Practice Writing Requirement.
Prerequisite: LEGAL ANALYSIS & WRITING AND CRIMINAL LAW AND CRIMINAL PROCEDURE I
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FEDERAL CIVIL DISCOVERY SEMINR (STATE AND FEDERAL PRACTICE - 3030)
2 credits
This litigation-oriented seminar not only offers an overview of the structure and interplay of the federal rules governing pre-trial discovery, but also provides an opportunity for in-depth analysis of challenging issues relating to the discovery process. Such issues will involve, for example, the appropriate balance between an individual's privacy interests and the need for fair disclosure, the recent explosion of electronic discovery, with its cost and other ramifications, the scope of the many federal privileges that may be asserted as bases for withholding discovery, the parameters of expert discovery, special problems in third-party and foreign discovery, and the role of the Court in overseeing the discovery process. This seminar is a reading and discussion-based course, taught primarily from recent judicial decisions, and is intended to complement the Pre-Trial Advocacy elective. Grades will be based primarily on a mid-term paper, in the form of a written argument on a discovery dispute, and a final paper, in the form of a judicial opinion.
Prerequisite or Corequisite: EVIDENCE
Debra C. Freeman
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FEDERAL COURTS (STATE AND FEDERAL PRACTICE - 1070)
3 credits
This course focuses on the federal judicial system, concentrating on the bases, scope, and limitations of jurisdiction in the United States District Courts, the United States Courts of Appeal, and the United States Supreme Court. The course deals with the distribution of power among the federal courts and the other branches of the federal government and between the federal government and the states. The course will also examine the substantive law to be applied in federal courts and conflicts arising between state and federal courts. A portion of the course deals with some of the same concepts and topics dealt with in Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law and Conflicts of Law, but approaches them from the perspective of the federal judicial system. Grades are based upon a final examination.
Prerequisite: CIVIL PROCEDURE
Ettie Ward
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FEDERAL PRACTICE (STATE AND FEDERAL PRACTICE - 1080)
3 credits
This course differs in purpose and content from Federal Courts in that it concentrates on essentially non-jurisdictional, practical problems of litigation in federal courts. The course will provide in-depth coverage of federal discovery practice, including an analysis of individual discovery methods and their relative strengths and weaknesses as well as discovery privileges and sanctions for abuse and non-compliance. The course will also examine res judicata and collateral estoppel, sanctions, class actions, equitable provisional remedies, summary judgment, extraordinary writs, awards of attorneys' fees, the right to jury trial, multidistrict litigation and the Manual for Complex Litigation. Grades are based upon a final examination.
Prerequisite: CIVIL PROCEDURE
Edward D. Cavanagh
Paul F. Corcoran
Ettie Ward