Been a long time...

Since my sister got on my case about not writing on my blog I figured it's about time to do another entry. And it has been five months so, you know, whatever. Let's see since the last time I wrote quite a bit has happened, I wonder if I can remember it all. First off I guess, I just finished up my first year of law school and it was a good one, a hard one but a good one. Everyone always tells you that it's going to be a lot of work, but you don't really understand until you do it. None the less I really enjoyed my first year and am looking forward to the second one to start.

One of the reasons I'm looking forward to it starting is that I was invited to join a couple of law journals. One is the Richmond Journal of Global Law and Business, GLOBAL, and the second is the Richmond Journal of Law and the Public Interest, JOLPI. Now, most people only do one journal, in face I think I'm the only one this year doing a dual membership, because it is so time consuming. No one mentioned that to me, so I was the only one stupid enough to accept a dual membership. I don't really regret it though, because it is going to give me plenty of experience, it's going to look good on a resume, and most importantly it I really really enjoy both subjects. I really enjoy international law, and comparative politics so GLOBAL will satisfy that itch, but I also really enjoy civil and human rights, and Constitutional Law, so JOLPI will qualm that appetite. It will be another really hard year but I am really really looking forward to it.

Speaking of international, the most fun thing I was able to do this summer was to go to England and study for a month at Cambridge University. It was a blast. Not really the school part, but the traveling every weekend. I did enjoy the classes I took, Introduction to English Legal History, and Introduction to the Law of the European Union. Like I said I've always been interested in International Law, and comparative politics so the EU class was a no brainer. Also, I love history, and I felt that since the American system of law developed as a part of English law, and since the Revolution, parallel to the English system, it was important to understand just how that system developed. Hopefully that knowledge will help me to better understand some subjects in the future. But the real reason I went to Cambridge was to see as much of the United Kingdom and Ireland as I can. I traveled five weekends and it still wasn't enough to see everything I wanted, so I guess I will have to go back. Of the things I saw, Kensington Palace, Buckingham Palace, Hampton Court Palace, the Tower of England, Parliament House and Big Ben, Westminster, Lincoln, York, Wembley Stadium and the Wembley Cup, Belfast, and Dublin, I didn't see anything I didn't like. Every weekend I enjoyed seeing the sights and I would do it all over again if I had the chance.

I'm sure that I'm forgetting something that has happened since the last time I wrote but I'm going to end this one on Cambridge. I will really try to do better Tara so please, when you see me, stop beating me up just to make me write an entry.

Great Way to Start Out Spring Break...

So it's spring break and time that I added another post to my blog. School is going really well and I am enjoying it a lot. This last week I had a draft due of my brief in support of summary judgment for law skills and I had a midterm for Family Law. Family law has turned out to be more interesting than I thought it would be. I don't want to do it for a practice but I found it interesting and some of the stories are entertaining as well. I'm just glad after having to do the polygamy cases that all the incest cases we read came from Tennessee.

The brief that we are writing has also become much more interesting than I feared so I'm happy for that. Contracts is still probably my favorite class which has surprised me because I'm also doing Constitutional Law this semester and I assumed that it would be my favorite subject. Turns out that my teacher isn't the greatest and having had Con Law classes before has made it kind of a review for the most part. Criminal law is ok.

So like I said Spring Break started Friday March 7 and I have to say that it started out really . . . eventful. All in all I think it has been great but busy. I worked Saturday morning and then Brittney and I drove up to DC to spend two days with Nate who is there training for a clerk job. It was really great to see Nate and really fun to tour the Mall and walk around. We saw the Washington Monument and the White House and the Lincoln Memorial. It was a lot of fun. The next day we went to the DC Temple and took some pictures. And after that Brittney and I started our drive home.

On our way home I got a call from my room mate and he let me know that our apartment building had burned down. So this is how eventful my life has been. We don't know what happened and the building didn't burn all the way down but the fire marshal condemned the building. See the pictures below. So I have been dealing with management and insurance since that happened. I'm looking forward to how this will all play out. Life can be so much fun and I really mean that. I hope you are all safe and I hope you are all as happy or happier than I am. :)

My Life and My Car

So it has been well over a month since I last posted something. And let me say that life is good. Actually I'll go one step further and say life is great. To start off I will just preface this by saying that school is going well as far as I know of and I'm staying quite busy. My classes are more interesting than they were last semester and I hope that things work out better than they did last. I am doing a Moot Court competition which is keeping me busy and it should look good on my resume. I am doing some research for a Professor Jones in regards to Romanian Constitutionalism. I am searching out all the old constitutions from the country and post them on a database. It's a little more difficult than I thought it would be. I've discovered that there are a number of constitutions from the past but as of yet have failed to find anyone that has copies of them or even snipets from them. I am also applying for internships this semester and as yet have not had any luck. I hope that I can find a place near Norfolk/Virginia Beach for multiple reasons including that it is beautiful out there.

For those of you that have heard my car you will remember the higher pitched revving that it made whenever it accelerated. Well that has been happening since I purchased the car, and since then I have been told that it was the engine, the transmission, and the alternator. Well it wasn't any of those. I was driving along when I felt a shock run through my car and a grinding noise coming from the front passenger side. I no longer had power steering and my battery light and brake light came on. Turns out my idler pulley seized up and shot a spring out of my engine compartment which shredded the serpentine drive belt. Well I got it fixed and the noise is completely gone. So I finally have gotten rid of that dang noise. I only had to pay 250.00 to do it. Good times.

Like I said life is great. My family is doing really well. We are all happy that Dov finished up this round of chemo. Mallory and Nate have had a little girl, Hailey, and she is adorable. I have the cutest nieces ever. She and Siena are going to be heart breakers. I miss hanging with my nephews, Landon and Matan, they are the biggest studs ever. I wish I could watch them grow, but I'm sure they are happy and healthy. I love life, even with car problems, and have no complaints whatsoever.

My Niece Doing Flips

I hate computers sometimes....

So I left my computer at school overnight, which I usually do. The next day I came back to the library, pulled out my computer and started booting up my computer and somehow a file on my computer became corrupted. I took it to the IT guys and apparently my computer can't find my hard drive. It seems to have disappeared. So chances are that I have lost all my class notes and case briefs which I've taken over the last five weeks. I am going to try somethings so I will try to keep this blog up to date. Anyways, take it easy.

Chris

Worst Case Yet

So this is a case that they asked us to read for Torts. Torts are personal injury suits including Battery, Assault, and False Imprisonment. This case has to do with Assault and is copied right from the book with no typos.


I de S and M, his wife, complain of W de S concerning this, that the said W, in the year, etc., with force and arms did make an assault upon said M de S and beat her. And it was found by the verdict of the inquest that the said W came at night to the house of the said I and sought to buy of his wine, but the door of the tavern was shut and he beat upon the door with a hatchet which he had in his hand, and the wife of the plaintiff put her head out of the window and commanded him to stop, and he saw and he struck with the hatchet but did not hit the woman. Whereupon the inquest said that it seemed to them that there was no trespass since no harm was done.

Thorpe, C.J. There is harm done and a trespass for which he shall recover damages since he made an assault upon the woman, as has been found, although he did no other harm. Wherefore tax the damages, etc. And they taxed the damages at half a mark. Thorpe awarded that they should recover their damages, etc., and that the other should be taken. And so note that for an assault a man shall recover damages, etc.


That was the opinion given in 1348. Nice huh?

My First Week of School...

So it is the end of my first week in law school and I thought I would list my schedule and maybe jot down some things that I have learned. I wake up at 6:30 or 7:00, not cause I have to but I find I'm more productive that way, and I get ready and try to leave my apartment around 7:30 or 8. I used to walk to school, though I bought a bike so it isn't going to take me as long to get to school. So I study til my first class which what ever day is always at 10:00. Monday and Wednesday I have Civil Procedure at 10:00 AM I then have a break until 2:20 when I have Torts. Really dry professor I hope I don't fall asleep. I am free after that at 4:00 and then can study and go home.

Tuesday I have Property at 10:00 and lawyering skills at 6:00PM and then I'm done that day. Thursday I have Property at 10:00 and then Legal Research at 3:30 and then I'm done. So that's my life; school, library, and home.

So what have I learned. Well in my civil procedure class I've learned that you can be sued in any court as long as you've had contact with the state and have availed yourself of any of it's benefits or its protections. This is especially important to corporations since many are incorporated in Delaware but do business all over the country.

In Torts I've learned that intent is important when proving Battery or Negligence. One woman sued a 6 1/2 year old for pulling out a chair from underneath her. The court found that he didn't have the intent to harm her, but the appellate court said that intent was knowing that the action could bring harm and that the victim would act in a certain way. The kid knew that what he did could have caused harm and had a reasonable belief that the woman would try to sit down where the chair had been so they remanded to the original court and they found the child liable of a battery tort.

My Property class I think will be my favorite this semester. We are talking about lost, mislaid and abandoned property. Finders Keepers Losers Weepers is actually law. The law says that the finder of a lost object claims possession of it over everyone else in the world but the original owner. So if you find 20 dollars on floor, or parking lot of a store it's yours to possess. You don't get title but you get to possess it. Lost property is defined by the nature of the item and where it is found. So it is reasonable to believe that a person wouldn't put a 20 bill on the floor and therefore we can believe that it was placed there accidentally, and without the owners knowledge. Mislaid is something that is left in a place and forgotten. So if you find a wallet on a table at a barber shop it is reasonable to assume that it was left there on purpose. In that case the wallet's possession would go to the owner of the property in question.

Classes are going well and they are interesting so I'm really happy. The only thing that bothers me out here is the fact that the use the F word like it's their job, and they drink way too much. I've remember how much I hate dealing with drunk people, and I hate swearing. Both being drunk and swearing make you sound and look so stupid and ignorant. And I know people out here are as smart as anywhere. Anyways I'll stop complaining and finish this up. Take care everyone and thanks for reading my blog.