About my business law class

COURT VISIT ASSIGNMENT

M. Brown

BUS 201

In this assignment, you will visit one court in order to witness 1) criminal prosecutions (if you do this

assignment on a civil case, there will be a 10% deduction in points) or 2) domestic violence hearings. If

you go to a series of criminal arraignments, it may not seem particularly dramatic. However, you do not

need to go to a session that is full of drama; you will learn just as much by adhering to the guidelines

below as you will by going to a spectacular murder trial, etc. If you choose to see a series of domestic

violence hearings, however, the tension, as well as the drama, is likely to be significantly elevated. In

general, I strongly recommend against you witnessing a trial; you could end up spending several hours

watching only part of one case. If you go to arraignments or domestic violence hearings, however, you

are likely to see a wide range of cases with a variety of personnel in a relatively short time span of 2-3

hours.

Except as indicated below, all students doing this assignment must complete, sign, and submit the

Consent Form for the Court Visit Assignment to the instructor no later than the deadline indicated in the

syllabus.

There is an alternative, web-based alternative to doing this assignment. Instead of going to court in

person, you may watch a series of hearings on the web (e.g., on youtube), as long as they satisfy all

requirements of this assignment. However, if at all possible, it is highly encouraged that you do this

assignment by going to a court in person rather than doing it based on the web. The reason is that

maximum learning and experiential opportunity come from not only passively witnessing proceedings

take place, but from physically being in the same room with litigants, prosecutors, defense attorneys,

court staff, etc. and, furthermore, having the opportunity to engage with them and ask them questions

(which has occurred often for students who have done this assignment, although doing so is not a

requirement). Students who do the web-based version of this assignment are not required to complete and

sign the Consent Form for the Court Visit Assignment.

Before you go to the court, call the court clerk’s office and tell them that you are doing an assignment for

a class. Ask the clerk for the days and times of arraignments or domestic violence hearings and for any

instructions pertaining to whether you may witness the proceedings. I strongly recommend that you

speak to the clerk at least a few days before doing your visit; otherwise, you might find yourself in a

proceeding that does not give you enough information to complete this assignment to the best extent

possible; ending up in a session that does not give you enough information does not excuse an inadequate

submission.

Your submission must be in 12 point font and double-spaced with approximately 1” margins.

In general, strong submissions are almost never less than 3-4 pages.

The submission must be no more than 6 pages in length. Be selective: although you must answer as many

of the questions on this assignment as possible, you will likely have to make choices about what is

important and what is not. Be sure to allow yourself enough space to include general comments about

how what you witnessed relates to how the legal system works and any preconceptions you may have

had.

Your submission must be in a Word or a Word-compatible format.

This assignment is not an essay. To the contrary, I strongly suggest that you simply respond to each of

the questions below individually. However, be sure that you do not copy-and-paste the questions or any

portion of this assignment into your submission; all penalties on non-conforming assignments will apply.

Make sure that you take copiously detailed notes on the following, at the very minimum:

1) Name and location of the court and the date and time of the proceedings you witnessed. Name of the judge.

2) Overall demeanor and conduct of all parties, including, but not necessarily limited to: the judge; the defense attorney(s); the prosecutor(s); court staff (bailiff, police officer(s), clerk(s),

transcriptionist(s); audience members; jurors, if applicable, etc.);

3) Professionalism of each of the preceding, where applicable;

4) Competency of each of the preceding, where applicable;

5) Race, gender, age, apparent socio-economic backgrounds of 1) all court personnel and attorneys 2) all litigants/parties and 3) audience members (guesstimates are fine); and make

comments about whether you believe this information is important and why/why not;

6) Efficiency, or lack thereof, of the court proceedings;

7) Overall mood, ambience, of the court;

8) Specific charge(s) and outcomes/results involved in the case(s) you observed (do not spend too much time on this question; select perhaps 3-4 of the outstanding cases and then move on

to the next question);

9) Your subjective, personal impressions of what you have witnessed;

10) Comments you have shared with or received from your peers in class; and

11) How what you have witnessed illustrates other lessons you have learned about how the legal system operates. Develop your response to this question in some depth.

Please number your responses. This is not intended to be an essay. Instead, please answer each question

individually.

This assignment is worth 25 points. Grading will be based on how completely your Court Visit

Assignment addresses the specific points listed here, as well as the length and depth of your analysis

about how what you have learned pertains to how the legal system functions.