The firm of Savage and LeClair having just rejected a merger offer from a firm comprising the children of Bill Cosby, Beverly Sills, Johnny Cash, and Connie Chung (Cosby, Sills. Cash and Chung) has hired you to research a case for them. A client of theirs, one Yehudi Whiner, is charging that his supervisor, Anita Lotta Love, made his promotion contingent upon his granting her personal favors of a sexual nature. A woman was promoted over him. He claims he was passed over because he would not submit to Love's demands. Both Whiner and Love work for the City of Upper Nouveau Riche in New Jersey.
Bif Savage sits in his red leather Louis XIV office chair as you enter his office. Feeling expansive because President Clinton has just nominated him for the Supreme Court post vacated by Justice Clarence Thomas, he waxes eloquent quoting from several of Harry Truman's speeches as he prepares to discuss the case with you. Before speaking to you, he waves off a call from the Governor as he absent mindedly explores the crevices of a piece of the Golan Heights given to him by Moishe Arens.
"Looks like a case of discrimination", he begins as a rearranges the statute of Truman on the left side of his desk. "We may have a tort claims notice problem here. See if we can get around the tort claims notice requirement in 59 NJSA enabling us to go into court in New Jersey under the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination. Have a memo on my desk by 10:00 a.m. on Monday."
1. Find a case and/or a statute on point which aids you in determining the law relevant to this type of situation. Print the first page of a case and a statute on point
2. Shepardize the case and print the resulting screen of your result.
3. Use the instacite service to gain further insight into the viability of any cases which you find. Print the first page of your result.
4. Print the database screen which you use prior to entering your query.
5. Print your query screen or write your query.
6. Print any other database screens which you used.
7. Print your final screen showing the elapsed time of your search or write your time.
8. Type a three page memorandum of law explaining the results of your research.
NOTE
Call 973.655.7954 or 973.655.4152 to make an appointment to use the Westlaw online services once you have completed the tutorial and have successfully completed the West Test. If the test malfunctions, do not worry about it. Make your appointment in any case and go online.
You may schedule as many half hours as you need (don't get crazy however). You may not exceed more than two half hours consecutively unless no one else is waiting or scheduled to use the machine you are on.
The interface available for the online part of the project will vary between Westmate, a dial up service, and the World Wide Web access. You are encouraged to alternate if you have time since you will find a variety of services in law firms.
Remember, you must complete the Westlaw tutorial in the Dickson 281 or 282 labs on the Legal Studies Menu and you must take the test from the Legal Studies Testing Menu in Dickson 281 or 282 (both programs are in Windows) or in the mini-lab in room Dickson 330 also.
DON'T PANIC - this is a learning exercise. The impact on your grade is minimal but the experience you gain is invaluable.
Good luck and may the gods of research smile upon you.
Prof. Jack Baldwin LeClair (9-99) Report problems to leclairj@mail.montclair.edu.
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