Settling for Settling

We had an interesting project today in Intro to Advocacy (previously known as writing). The prof paired us off in teams of two and gave us an information sheet regarding a fake case. One pair represented a student who broke his leg slipping on a puddle left by a leaky water fountain at a high school, and the other side represented the school. As an attorney for the kid with the bum leg, I had a letter from his parents saying they wanted at least $3,500 in some way, shape or form - whether that meant going to trial or settling. Thus, I couldn’t settle for less than $4,500, factoring in my $1k salary (of course). We were given estimates for medical costs and lost wages, and then provided with a rough estimate that, if we went to trial and won, the jury would probably award us $2-5k in pain and suffering. So we had to meet with the school’s attorneys and haggle. The good news is, we won (per se) - we got the “school” to pay us $3,000 for $2,300 of medical expenses, plus $1,500 for $500 of lost wages, then $300 for the private tutor the kid had to hire while he was in jail, and $200 that we just plain reeled in for kicks (we gave some song and dance about how the boy was going to lose an entire season of varsity basketball and had been expecting a basketball scholarship to college, blah blah blah). We “won” by procuring $5,000 in settlement - $500 more than we needed, and we maxed out the school’s funds (the sheet the prof gave them said they could pay up to $5000 or they would have to go to court). So... we were pretty successful. Rah, rah, rah.

I went to the Computer Lab this morning before class and met with a representative from Westlaw (one of the online research programs) for help researching this motion I have to write. I don’t know if I mentioned it before, but for Writing I have to craft a motion as Arnold Schwartzenegger’s lawyer to have a lawsuit against him moved to a different venue (because, as governor, he wants to have the case tried in LA as opposed to San Francisco for his convenience and the convenience of his witnesses). So... the rep gave me a bunch of searching tips and I’m now on the path to have a nice nest of case rulings to mine from when I’m crafting my plea. Whew! I was really worried... last night seemed like my gazillionth evening of futile exploration.

Wednesday... 50 degrees today, and bright - much more encouraging (psychologically). Since Disney history today is dry, I'll mention that today in 1970 was the first session of the US Supreme Court.