Hmmm...the last post was pretty boring. This should be less so.
A few comments about the social scene (or lack thereof).
Law school is actually a bit more like high school than undergrad was, especially if you went to a very large state school like I did. At least in the first year, all your classes will be with the same people. There's lockers. You start to see cliques forming. The difference is that we're all full adults now. Our hormones have settled to more balanced levels, but there's room for romance, but very little bullying.
It's also different from both high school and undergrad in that most of the school-sponsored events have an open bar. This is especially interesting if you're in the evening section and half the class (and the prof) are bringing in beer bottles or wine glasses.
You will, of course, gain weight if you're not careful. At least where I'm going, there's no gym in the basement, and all those bacchanals (there's one about once a week) serve food.
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In my first semester, I am taking Torts, Contracts, Legal Writing, and Economics[1]. Full-time students are in the above, and also Property. That's 11 credit hours for evening students and 15 hours for full-time students. 89 are required to graduate.
Torts meets twice a week. It provides the most entertainment value so far. So far we've gone over battery[2], assault, intentional infliction of emotional distress (outrage), and are now discussing trespass.
Economics may be a bit surprising, but the pedagogical theory is that laws, and their enforcement, shape both the nation's economy and your life as much as traditional "policy" decisions. Take, for example, the health care debate. In the U.S., there are between 10 million and 46 million uninsured, depending on who you talk to, what statistics you use, and what groups of uninsured don't count[3]. Also, the U.S. spends 16 percent of its GDP on health care, much more than any other nation[4]. So, as a lawmaker, what do you want to do? Reduce the number of uninsured, by doing things like providing a single-payer system or setting up a government-sponsored insurance company that will compete with the private sector, doing for the health care section of the economy what Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac did for the housing section; or do you try to reduce costs by breaking up local insurance monopolies within each state and allow private-sector insurers to expand to all 50 states, increasing competition, or implementing tort reform?
Contracts may be a little dry at times, but it has its moments[5]. It's basically all about the making, and breaking, of promises.
Legal Writing is a bit more like your undergrad experience. However, it will probably be the most relevant, or at least the most familiar, for the Ace Attorney player. This is a four semester course, and the first semester is trial-level writing. So far we're doing inter-office memos, where we take the role of junior attorneys and write to senior partners "predictive memos" where given the facts and the law, how we think a court will rule (and eventually develop strategies to win). What makes it interesting is that we're taking the role of defense attorneys, and each week there's new facts, some that help us, and others that make our clients look awfully guilty. I can't talk about one of them on the off-chance that another student might read my comments and cheat, but the class discussion project is an alleged burglary.
This is how I know I play too much Phoenix Wright: when I read a sentence that describes a new piece of evidence, I actually hear the jingle playing and see the "xxxxx added to the Court Record" animation. Also, there's two witnesses that contradict each other on a key fact.
That's about all for now. If you're interested in a couple of contracts cases, please read: Lucy v. Zehmer, 196 Va. 493, 84 S.E.2d 516 (the actual opinion starts halfway down the left column on the third page), and Leonard v. PepsiCo, Inc., 88 F.Supp.2d 116 (S.D.N.Y. 1999)[6]. Also watch this video, which is the subject of the second case. The question is, when is a joke a joke? Answers next week.
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[1]This, combined with geographical clues earlier in the thread, may reveal the name of the school where I attend, if you do some research. He who has ears, let him hear. I will not directly confirm or deny where I attend at this time. However, if anybody from admin ever reads this, let me take this opportunity to say first, that you're doing a very good job and I am overall completely satisfied with my education at your school, and second, that all my posts are completely my own, and do not necessarily represent the opinions of any law school, university, corporation, publishing company, or government agency. Additionally, while I'm at it, I haven't passed the bar exam yet, so if you are taking any of this actual legal advice for your own case, please stop and find an actual competent professional. Same goes for any other students that come across here--I will not guarantee that you will pass any exam after reading my posts. Any rebroadcast, reproduction or other use of this game without the express written consent of Major League Baseball is prohibited.
[2]You think battery requires violence or injury? Guess again.
[3]Examples include illegal aliens, willingly uninsured people making over 75,000 a year, willingly uninsured young adults who are chancing the risk of a catastrophic accident or rare disease, and those already eligible for Medicaid but not taking advantage of it.
[4]France is second at 11 percent.
[5]Consider Stees v. Leonard, 20 Minn. 494 (1874). I am not making this up. "The defendants commenced the construction of the building, and had carried it to the height of three stories, when it fell to the ground. The next year, 1869, they began again and carried it to the same height as before, when it again fell to the ground, whereupon defendants refused to perform the contract." I'll talk more about the whole thing in a later post.
[6]No idea what it is about Pepsico that attracts...interesting claims.
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It's just plain madness...
: No it's Sparta!
