Complete the Rules 2 exercise, which is on the dropbox.
Complete the Admissibility of Evidence Assignment, which is on the dropbox. List either “yes” or “no” and the rule only.
Answer the Ethics Exercise, which is found on the dropbox. List answers only.
Complete the Westlaw Texas exercise, which is on the dropbox. You’ll need to switch from the US Supreme Court database to Texas cases on Westlaw. Answers only.
Mock Trial: Draft the responses to the RFP, RFA and Rogs.
For all of these responses, you must use the response forms on FormBuilder. If the requests you got are imperfect, do not change them. Even if they spell someone’s name wrong or spell words incorrectly or put the wrong address or really, just any mistake – do not “fix” the request. Also, don’t be a jerk about your answers. For example, if someone puts the current year, as opposed to the year the incident happened, don’t answer with something like “Nothing happened on that date in that year.” You know what they meant. Just answer. Make your answer clear by using the correct information, but don’t say anything about the mistake in the request or question. Be kind. Someday, you might make a mistake.
For the Response to the Request for Production (this is the hardest mock trial assignment) — for each request, you have two, and only two, choices: produce or object. Use the FormBuilder wording for the objections. You cannot just make up objections. You may not simply provide a response, such as “There are no medical records.” For RFPs, you must produce the thing that’s requested, or else you must provide a valid objection. By far, the most common objections are the one dealing with relevance, or the one dealing with custody, or control. Also everything you want to object to will fall under one of those two objections. You cannot just pick one objection and use it for everything, but there’s no need to try to use every objection. Objections you should not use are ones dealing with Constitutional rights, privacy rights, providing the things at a later time, documents too voluminous, or having a less expensive, or more convenient, source. That should narrow it down for you. You must use the FormBuilder language for providing the document, as well as the FormBuilder language for objecting to the request. FormBuilder will provide everything except the exhibit number. You have to fill in the blank, like Exhibit F or Exhibit 12. For a question that asks for multiple exhibits, you may say, for example, Exhibits A-H. You may provide an explanation for your objection, and FormBuilder provides that opportunity, but it is not required. The whole team does not have to number the exhibits in the same way or in the same order. Take out the sentence that says “subject to and without waiving the foregoing.” Do not leave [* *] in the document. If what is requested is included in the evidence packet of the mock trial packet, you may use the following response: “Documents responsive to this request are in the mock trial packet.” You can use this for those evidence documents only, and not for anything else.
For the RFA Response, you must answer with either ADMITTED or DENIED. Don’t object. If you cannot admit, then deny. Yes, it’s really that simple, for purposes of this assignment.
For the Interrogatories Responses, use complete sentences in your responses. You may use a proper objection, but it is often easier to just answer the question than it is to object. If you object, you must go through FormBuilder to get the proper wording for the objection. Look up the objection, rather than just picking something that sounds good. Make sure you understand the meaning of the objection. When you object, a partial sentence—subject to and without waiving the foregoing,– may be inserted by FormBuilder. If you look at the words, you can see that this means “subject to the judge ruling on the objection above, and without waiving that objection, here’s the answer.” So, for this assignment, just delete that partial sentence. In real life, your attorney will tell you if they want to object and answer, or just object. FormBuilder puts in [* *] after the objection. What they are providing is a space to explain why you’re using that particular objection. But you can just delete the [* *] because you never want to include those.
This is your hardest week of homework. After this, I promise that it gets better, in terms of difficulty and volume. You’ve got this.
For next week, you may want to print out the IDEA, SSA, Mental Health Commitments, Guardianship, and Disability Eugenics powerpoints.
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All homework must be typed using Times New Roman font, 12 point size.
Homework turned in after the date and time it is due is subject to a ten-point deduction per class day.
Homework may not be turned in more than one week late.
