COURT/INTERVIEW ASSIGNMENT

Visit one of the federal, appellate, or superior courts in Washington, and observe a court hearing. A local district court, small claims court, or municipal court proceeding (like one where you might have contested a traffic ticket, county or town) is not acceptable. You may visit the court with others in the course, but remember that this is not the group assignment—each student’s memorandum must be his or her own work. The matter you observe can be a civil trial, or a hearing on a "motion," or any other similar judicial proceeding. The subject matter of a legal proceeding that involves a civil matter might include a contract dispute, ownership of property, environmental issues, property development, probate, sales of goods, business or personal torts, professional negligence/liability (malpractice), family law or even bankruptcy proceedings. I would prefer that you not report on a criminal matter, as we really cover criminal law more as it involves business, in this course, unless the matter involves, e.g., “white collar crime” (connected with some otherwise legal business endeavor). For instance, if you went to federal district court to view a preliminary hearing for someone who was being prosecuted for wrongful accounting procedures, in violation of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, that would be appropriate. The idea is to find something that you find interesting, but if there are no civil or business/criminal cases available, then please just observe what you can. It might well be necessary for you to observe two or three different hearings before you pick one about which to write your report. You need to find out when the court starts (usually by somewhere between 9:00 and 10:00 a.m.) and to try to check in with the court clerk or bailiff before the judge comes out onto the bench. You can ask court personnel for their opinion on whether the current hearing is worth your watching. I suggest that you plan to spend at least several hours to make this observation worthwhile.

It would also be a good idea to obtain a court calendar of cases then currently being tried, on the day of your visit. I think that the calendar for King County Superior Court can be obtained in the King County Courthouse in the "Information" office. The calendar for Snohomish County Superior Court is available on a monitor on the first floor, or you may inquire at the Court Administrator’s office that is on the fifth floor. You will need to check with the court clerk or the court administrator for the calendar at any other court. It is best to find a case that is either just beginning or about to end. That way, you can watch the jury selection process (voir dire), and hear opening statements from the attorneys and comments by the judge, if it is the beginning of the case, or closing statements, if it is the end of a case. If it is a jury case, you might hear the judge's instructions to the jury. Otherwise, if you enter a trial in the middle of the proceedings, you will in all likelihood be listening to direct or cross-examination. Unless you know something about the case, you will probably not get as much out of walking into a trial or hearing in the middle of the proceeding. But if the judge takes a brief recess, most attorneys do not mind being questioned about the nature of their cases, so you could “catch up” that way.

DO NOT CHEW GUM IN COURT, WEAR A HAT, HAVE YOUR CELL PHONE ON (UNLESS IT’S IN SILENT MODE), OR ELECTRONICALLY RECORD (AUDIO or VIDEO) WHAT IS GOING ON - PLEASE DO NOT INTERRUPT THE OPERATION OF THE COURT. COURTROOMS ARE GENERALLY OPEN TO THE PUBLIC, UNLESS THERE IS A SIGN POSTED ON THE DOOR THAT SAYS SOMETHING LIKE “CLOSED HEARING.” ALSO, MANY COURTHOUSES HAVE METAL DETECTORS, AND ANYTHING PERCEIVED AS BEING A “WEAPON” MAY BE CONFISCATED. IN THE SNOHOMISH COUNTY COURTHOUSE, IF YOU HAVE A SWISS ARMY KNIFE OR OTHER “WEAPON,” ON YOUR PERSON OR KEY CHAIN, OR IN YOUR PURSE, THE VERY THOROUGH GUARDS WILL LIKELY FIND IT, AND YOU WILL BE TOLD TO “CHECK” IT IN THE LOCKERS MADE AVAILABLE FOR A FEE, BEFORE YOU WILL BE ALLOWED TO ENTER THE COURTHOUSE—SO LEAVE THOSE THINGS BEHIND! AND PLEASE DRESS NEATLY AND BE WELL-GROOMED—THERE IS NO “DRESS CODE” (OTHER THAN NO HATS), BUT YOU ARE REPRESENTING EDMONDS COMMUNITY COLLEGE, SO PLEASE, NO TORN JEANS, FLIP-FLOPS, ETC. IF A LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER ASKS YOU TO LEAVE THE COURTROOM, FOR WHATEVER REASON, PLEASE FOLLOW THOSE INSTRUCTIONS RIGHT AWAY. PLEASE OBSERVE QUIETLY, PREFERABLY FROM A BACK ROW IN THE COURTROOM.

After your observation, you are to write a paper in memorandum form (see format instructions below), which should include, at a MINIMUM, the following information:

1. The time, day, place (which court - federal, superior, etc.) of the court proceeding.

2. Name and type of case, the court case number, and the names of the judge and attorneys involved. (You can often find this out from the attorneys, during a break.)

3. The nature of the legal proceedings (jury or non-jury trial, motion calendar, etc.) taking place at the time, as well as a description of the activities taking place, including what the attorneys and/or the judge were doing or saying.

4. Your own personal comments, impressions or reaction to what you observed, including something new you learned about the law or the legal system, or some impression that changed because of your visit.

Some of you might have had a past court proceeding experience that also qualifies, but you need to include the information set out above. Various other state courts that qualify for this assignment (besides the superior court) include the State Supreme Court (Olympia) and the Court of Appeals (Seattle or Tacoma or Spokane). You may also visit one of the federal courthouses in Western Washington (Seattle or Tacoma) or Eastern Washington (Spokane, Richland or Yakima). You may also visit another state’s court, or another federal court, but be sure the court is at a jurisdictional level consistent with Washington’s superior courts, or higher. (Check with me via Inbox if you have any concerns about whether you are choosing the correct level of court to visit.) If you are outside the United States for the entire quarter, and wish to visit a courthouse elsewhere for this assignment, make sure that it is not the equivalent of a state small claims court, where lawyers are not allowed. You may send me a message in Inbox to confirm that the other court qualifies for your memo.

Your report must be two full pages, double-spaced, and must be in memorandum (“memo”) form. Please do not exceed two pages.
(This is memo form: At the top of the page, the following four items on the left top side of the page, one item per line, so it looks like this (and this one part of the memo needs to be single-spaced, not double-spaced):

To: MSM [the instructor’s initials]

From: (put your name in this space)

Re: Visit to [put the name of the court visited here, and the date of the visit]

Date:___

Do not include any other information at the top of the page (e.g., title of the course or headers), besides the four items shown above.

The body of the memo must be in prose (the body of the report must be in conventional paragraph form). Please do not number or put headings on the paragraphs.
When you save and name your document, please be sure to include your name in the document name, so I don't have to open the file to find out whose memo it is (e.g., if Sara visits King County Superior Court in Seattle, she would name her document as follows: SaraHagenCrtVisitMemoSum16SecB).
Please save your document as Rich Text Format, so I’ll be able to open it. (If I can’t, I won’t be able to give you a grade.)

IF YOU CHOOSE OPTION 3 (THE COURT VISIT WITH ME OPTION):

First, read the previous section (Option 2) as well. (Make sure you check out the courthouse complex campus and parking map below, and bring a copy of this assignment with you, or have access to it when you arrive.)

Our visit is expected to occur on Tuesday, July 26th, at approximately 8:15AM, at the Snohomish County courthouse complex, 3000 Rockefeller Avenue, in Everett.

To get to our meeting spot, enter the Courthouse Building (see map link below) through the “public entrance” that faces Wall Street, and go through Security there. Allow a little time to get through Security, because there might be prospective jurors who receive priority (even though the court administrator’s office has indicated that jurors are supposed to be using a separate entrance). (We will be meeting at approximately 8:10 AM (Courthouse Security opens at 8AM), on the second floor, in the hallway outside Departments 5 and 6--this is the hallway in the Mission Building across the second floor pedestrian walkway, connecting the Mission Building to the Courthouse Building--once you have walked beyond Security, and up the stairs to the second floor (turn left at the top of the stairs and continue across the pedestrian bridge).)] Court will likely not be in session yet, but please remain quiet while waiting for me to arrive. If our meeting spot changes, I will post any changes in Announcements, so be sure to check Announcements before you go.

For those who do the courthouse visit with me, you will have some additional options as far as what to include in your two-page memo, which are outlined below. We are scheduled to visit with Judge Ellis, in Department 6 on the second floor (one of the departments right by where we are meeting), at approximately 8:15AM, and maybe have a tour “behind-the-scenes” of Judge Ellis’ chambers. (If you arrive at the courthouse after 8:15, and we have already left the hallway outside Departments 5 and 6, please go into the courtroom designated “Department 6,” unless there is an indication that it is a “closed” hearing, and quietly take a seat.)

Alternative report writing options

If you visit the courthouse with me, you may replace any of the parts 1-3 of the court visit “on your own” option listed on pp. 3-4 with the following:

1. Describe what you learned about court clerk procedures, if we visit the clerk’s office. OR

2. Describe what you learned from the judge or other courtroom personnel about the courtroom layout or any other topic discussed by the judge. OR

3. Describe what you observed in a courtroom before we met with the judge.

4. Explain what you most enjoyed about the trip.

5. Explain what you least enjoyed about the trip—when you do this, please feel free to make a suggestion about how improvements could be made in the trip, which I will take into consideration (although sometimes I have no control over what you would like to see improved).

Then make sure you include discussion of the topics listed in Item 4 of the “court visit on your own” assignment. (Any/all of the first three topics referenced in the previous “on your own court visit” section may also be used to fill your two-page report, but you need to include Item 4 of the “on your own” visit option (“Your own personal comments, impressions or reaction to what you observed, including something new you learned about the law or the legal system, or some impression that changed because of your visit.”).)

If you choose the “Court Visit with Me” option, then, when you are ready to prepare your memo, follow the memo format and document naming/saving instructions for the court visit “on your own” option, given on pp. 4-5, above.

This assignment is worth 50 points, allocated as follows:
1) Completion of interview or court visit (but you must complete and post your memo to earn this): 25 points
2) Inclusion in your memo of all required minimum subject items listed for the option you chose for this assignment: 15 points
3) Correct grammar, spelling, and sentence structure in your memo: 5 points
4) Correct formatting, saving/naming, and posting of your memo by the due date, in the correct Canvas location: 5 points