paralegal

 

 

Graded Project

Legal Writing Project 1

By

Mike Wilson, Esq.

Reviewed by

Brian Bastyr, Esq.

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r

vic

e

marks have been appropriately capitalized. Use of a term in this text shoul

d

not be regarded as a

f

fecting the validity of any trademark or se

r

vice mark

.

About the Autho

r

Mike Wilson is a freelance writer and college instructor who has

had wide legal and educational experience.

He graduated with his bachelor of arts degree in English from the

University of Kentucky in 1976, and three years later received his

law degree from the same school. He has been a partner in a law

firm, a solo practitioner, and has done work in general and family

mediation. He has also been a full-time instructor in Paralegal

Studies at Sullivan College in Kentucky. He was given the “Teacher

of the Year” award in 1997.

Mr. Wilson has had a number of papers published on law-related

topics in both scholarly and popular journals.

About the Reviewe

r

Brian Bastyr is a senior attorney editor for West Group, a legal pub

-

lishing company. He earned a bachelor’s degree at the University of

Illinois, and a Juris Doctor from the University of Illinois College of

Law. He is currently a member of the Illinois bar, and has published

a number of articles in legal journals.

Copyright © 2005 by Penn Foste

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Printed in the United States of America

iii

INTRODUCTION 1

EXERCISES 2

CASES 9

STATUTES 18

TIPS 19

WRITING GUIDELINES 21

SUBMITTING YOUR PROJECT 21

GRADING CRITERIA 22

Contents

Contents

1

INTRODUCTION

Background.

This graded project provides practical experi-

ence in the type of legal writing you may be asked to do as

a paralegal.

Procedure.

This project involves three exercises. For the

first exercise, you’ll prepare a letter to a client advising her

of the date and time of her tax assessment appeal hearing.

For the second exercise, you’ll prepare a deed for a client

who is selling her property. In the first and second exercises,

you’ll also be asked to review your supervising attorney’s

memo and then prepare the required document. A form letter

and deed are provided to you to help in completing the

assignment. For the final exercise, you’ll prepare an internal

memorandum to your supervising attorney addressing a par-

ticular issue of law. Statutory and court authority needed to

complete this assignment are provided.

Goal.

When you’ve completed this project, you’ll have

experience

preparing several types of legal writing, which

you may be asked to do as a paralegal in a law firm. You’ll

also have practice in following very specific formats and

forms in completing these projects, and in using clear, pre-

cise language and good grammar, spelling, and punctuation

when you write.

Legal Writing Project 1

Legal Writing Project 1

2

EXERCISES

Exercise 1: Pr

eparing a Letter to a Client

In

Figure 1

, you’ll find a memo from your supervising attorney

asking you to prepare a letter to your client, Jane Smith. In

the memo, your supervising attorney is telling you that he

has received a Tax Assessors’ Office Hearing Notice and she

wants you to send a letter to Ms. Smith advising her of that

hearing. The information that should be included in your

letter to the client is in both the memo from your supervising

attorney and the appeal hearing notice shown in

Figure 2.

When you’re preparing your letter, make sure you use the

letter writing recommendations included in the

Legal Writing

study unit. The letter should go out under your sig

nature,

not your supervising attorney’s signature. The letter to Ms.

Smith should go to the property address listed in the Tax

Notice. Sample letterhead for your law firm is shown in

Figure 3.

Use the client’s address that’s listed in the hearing notice.

Memo

From:

Supervising Attorney, ES

To:

Paralegal

Date:

Today

Re:

Jane Smith, Tax Appeal

Our File No.

Smith-3-04

Please send a letter to Ms. Smith advising her of her tax appeal hearing per the

attached notice. Please make sure she remembers she is to meet me in the

lobby ten minutes before the hearing is scheduled to begin and that she should

bring pictures of all comparable houses in her area as per our earlier meeting.

ES

FIGURE 1—Memo fr

om Super

vising Attor

ney to Paralegal