Overview: Imagine that you are a paralegal in law firm

Overview: Imagine that you are a paralegal in law firm

Overview: Imagine that you are a paralegal in law firm

Overview: Imagine that you are a paralegal in law firm. You have been tasked with drafting the initial memo regarding the case of a new client to the firm,

Ms. Baker. After interviewing Ms. Baker, you learned the following: Ms. Baker, a resident of Connecticut, was on road trip to visit the world’s largest ball of twine in Cawker City, Kansas. When she was driving in Kansas, her car was hit from behind by Ms. Smith, a Kansas resident. Unfortunately, Ms. Baker’s car was totaled, she suffered injuries, emotional distress and lost time from work. Her damages exceeded $75,000. The police determined the accident was wholly the faulty of Ms. Smith.

Instructions:

• Use the attached Memo template.

Draft an office memorandum to your supervising attorney in which you answer the following questions:

• Can this case be filed in federal court? Why? (HINT: See Diversity Jurisdiction)

• Identify and explain the first document that the firm should file in court on behalf of Ms. Baker that will let Ms. Smith know that she is being sued.

• Identify what information should be sought in discovery.

• Identify and explain witnesses that should be called on behalf of Ms. Baker at trial.

• Would ADR be helpful in this case? Why?

Requirements:

Use APA format for non-legal sources such as the textbook. Use Bluebook
citation format for any legal citations.

Submit a Word document using the Memo template.

Maximum two pages in length, excluding the Reference page.
Requirements: 2 pages

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.