A dear friend of mine decided to go to law school at fifty years of age. This is something that she had always wanted to do but did not have the time or finances for until she was fifty. The first year of school she worked full time as a social worker in the same agency with me along with taking three classes. I could not believe that she was able to complete the tasks that she needed to do for our high stress jobs in addition to studying and reading for her classes. She did say that the one thing she was not prepared for was the law school essay. She has always had an easy time taking test, but the law school essay is a completely new concept for her.
Two of the first classes she was taking had only one grade for the class and that was the score that you received on the written exam at the end of the semester. The reason they have some up with the law school essay is to have the students practice placing what they are learning into their own words. The thought is that writing the essays will help the student when they need to write briefs for court hearings. It also helps them learn to defend their stance on a certain point of law. For the timed tests the student is allowed to bring a lap top computer to the class; however it does need to be thoroughly examined to insure that the person is not cheating. I was surprised when my friend told me that the majority of the students hand write their law school essay rather than use a computer. She does this the majority of the time because her husband uses the lap top computer for work and so he does not want to risk losing information when the school checks the computer prior to the tests.
The students also have to wait for a long period of time to get the scores from the tests because each law school essay has to be read by the professor teaching the course. This must be a tedious job for the professors when they have to deal with several different students with various kinds of hand writing. They use this same procedure for the bar exam that each student needs to pass prior to becoming a practicing attorney. The bar exam is given over a two day period and includes one day of multiple choice questions and one day of more law school essay questions. Both portions of the exam are timed.
The essay portion includes five areas of the law. My friend had a difficult time the first time she took the bar exam because one of the questions was on tax law, which she does not have a great deal of interest in. This one essay kept her from passing the bar. She then had to study and wait for six months before taking the test again. She was able to pass the exam the second time she took it and is now a practicing attorney.
Archive for December, 2010
How to Perfect your Law School Essay
Friday, December 24th, 2010Claiming after a personal injury
Wednesday, December 22nd, 2010People injure themselves all the time, but it remarkable how many times this happens, and people do not make a claim. There are many reasons why people don’t make a claim, even when they believe that the accident was not their fault. Firstly of all, a lot of people don’t understand the legal system well enough, so they just assume that although they believe themselves to be in the right, the law courts will not see it that way, and they don’t claim. A good rule of thumb is to always presume you are right, until a lawyer tells you that you are not! You should always seek legal counsel in the event of any accident.
The other reasons that people do not make claims is because they can’t afford the costly legal fees. This is a valid point, but people need to realise that you can find solicitors who will operate on a No Win No Fee basis. This means that you don’t have to pay any up front fees, and it should also mean that when it comes to settlement, you should be entitled to the whole lot, because your solicitor will claim from the defendant for his costs. This is an excellent way of seeking justice, and one that will work well if you feel that you have been injured through no fault of your own. Make sure you finds a solicitor who can work without an advance payment from you, and they are sure to give you an indication of the likelihood of you having a good chance of success in court. Make sure you find a good Personal Injury Lawyer when it comes to making an Injury Claim.
Basics of Criminal Law
Friday, December 17th, 2010asics of Criminal Law
Criminal law, which can also be described as “penal law” is an umbrella term relative to various sets of rules and regulations bound with the impositions or penalties that can be potentially put into play for failure to comply with the aforementioned rules and regulations. The often severe penalties connected to failing to comply with the law are why criminal law is often known by the term ‘penal law’. The various theories of criminal justice include aspects like incapacitation, deterrence, punishment as well as rehabilitation. In fact, the theoretical justification of criminal law is that its enforcement helps the society to impose a peaceful order as well as contain and prevent criminal activities.
In case you want to specialize in the field of criminal law, the CEO of Law Crossing, Mr. A. Harrison Barnes would suggest that you study the details as well as particulars of this particular aspect of law. For a lot of us, familiarity with the concept of criminal law comes from the media, like television, news papers as well as books. From time immemorial, the human race has been advertised to be based on qualities such as kindness, love, truth, freedom, and justice. However the establishment of the legal system with its divisions of various rules and legislations combined with its penal system has been based on the fact that basically, humans are animals, social animal’s maybe, but animals all the same.
Details from ancient recorded history and everyday news reports proves time and again that given a change in situation, humans are capable of unspeakable malice towards one another. The criminal or penal law system aims to contain the animal and uphold the virtues of mankind. For those who seek to familiarize themselves with the very ethics and essentials of this particular kind of law, the understanding requires research on a wide array of subjects. For example, there are aspects where we may experience personal involvement like the case of a person recounting his or her experiences, with which we may identify. These are incidents that make us rethink entire concepts as well as ideologies. With the real life issues coming to the fore, we may experience the requirement for assistance and further information or detailed study.
Criminal law is a term, an idea that encompasses criminal statutes, the key player in the relevant field and the procedures or consequences of a criminal trial. Now, what is the basis of criminal law? For criminal law procedure to come into play, there are two main elements that need to present itself logical proof. There needs to be some kind of a proof of an undesirable act to prove a crime. Early scholars have termed this as actus reus. Once this has been established, the second element needs to be unveiled. This would be the motive or the intent for the “actus reus.” This has been termed as “mens rea.”
According to A. Harrison Barnes a social body or government may determine a particular conduct as criminal by making punishable sanctions on that person in the form of fines or imprisonment verdicts. Generally, the crimes are identified in legal statutes enacted by federal bodies and legislatures in response to issues that relate to your jurisdiction. A city or body may determine the act of drinking in public a crime, whereas the federal body may generalize that a bank robbery is a crime as usually, banks and financial institutions are insured by the federal state. According to the norms of a criminal statute, a behavioral pattern or conduct may be deemed as a crime if it adheres to particular norms that have been laid down by the government.
According to the norms of Section 459, everyone who enters A. House or tenement intending to commit larceny or burglary should be deemed guilty of burglary. There are various stipulations that have been affixed by diverse law statutes and legislations codifying a particular behavior as criminal. A. Harrison Barnes, who has been a lawyer himself, mentions in this context that first degree mode of theft is punishable in the state prison for a period of 2 to 6 years, while theft of the second degree is punishable by the federal state in the county or state jail for a year’s time. There may be severe impositions that are liable to be placed on the criminal in case they fail to comply. The common modes of punishment take into account loss of liberty, parole, probation or government supervision, payment of fines and execution. People, confessing being guilty of a particular crime on account of a guilty plea in a jury trial, are often punished by imprisonment, probation, community service and other penalties. There are 5 broad objectives of criminal law:
If you are in a legal employment, you will be aware of the fact that criminal law has potentially serious as well as life threatening consequences if the guilty or accused fails to abide by the legally permitted stipulations. In the course of his attorney career, A. Harrison Barnes, the founder of the comprehensive legal head hunting site, Law Crossing has noted that every criminal process can be exercised in one jurisdiction or the other. In the case of physical punishments, it may be said that a lot of countries of the world forbid physical torture and that the criminals may be handed in different physical conditions in different jurisdictions. Some of the punishments include house arrest, solitary confinement or a parole regimen. The execution of criminal law, though varied in its approach and logical conclusion in different parts of the globe, stands united in its aim – to preserve the humanity of the human race.