May 22, 2009 Time Worked: 8-3 Time Written: 4:02 pm

Today was my last day at the office. Mr. Stanton had me file over 4 cases which took a very long time. The experience I got from working with Mr. Stanton was amazing. I got to see what it was actually like to work at a law office and in a city law office. The experience was awesome and I am very thankful i got to work and do the law office stuff with him. 

May 20, 2009 Time Worked: 8-3 Time Written : 6:14 pm

Today i helped on a deposition which is a sworn statement given under oath and questioning by an attorney. The deposition had a stenographer at one end of the table and the lawyer from the other side on one side.and Mr. Stanton on one side of a long table with the City employee next to him. The lawyer asked question about a vacant lot in the City and the City worker who was a department head had to answer the questions truthfully. What i noticed was that the City worker only answered the question asked and never elaborated on it. The lawyer told me that is important because if you try and do more than the question asked you usually say something you regret. The Deposition took about an hour and the lawyers were respectful to each other but during the deposition they often said things on the record to preserve their rights.I helped in preparing the witness, drove to the deposition and reviewed when we got back.

May 19, 2009 Time Worked: 8-4 Time Written: 5:11 pm

Today I worked on a case where a person slipped and fell while getting out of her car in a vacant lot that the City owns. the City';s position is that she should not have been trespassing on City land and they ares responsible. However, the woman claims that the area was plowed and that she thought it was a parking. The City does not plow the property because they don't use it. the city attorney suspects that someones plowed the lot ( restaurant owner in the area) and allowed his customers to Park there. In any event the City will not pay the claim even thought the woman broker her arm. i had to review pleadings and discovery that the parties had exchanged. 

May 18, 2009 Time Worked 8-5  Time Written 5:10 pm

Today was sort of an interesting day. There was a claim that came in from a woman who claimed her tire went flat as the result of hitting a staple that was in a area of the road that the city had just opened up to fix a pipe in the ground and then covered up. The claim is that a staple in the road must have washed into the area that the city put a gravel patch in and then punctured her tire. The City denied the claim because the crew that dud the hole, fixed the pipe, and then backfilled in never had any staples on them. The city also has to put a temporary patch in first and have the soil compacted first before they pave it over. If they pave it over first the blacktop will sink. So it looks like the City was not negligent and they did not pay the claim. The other thing I worked on was a letter to help the city collect on unpaid taxes. It was complicated but people that don't pay the taxes on their homes have the city file a notice that tells anyone that tries to buy the house that the city is owed money and the City's tax bill must be paid first. 

May 15, 2009 Hours Worked : 8-3 Time Written 9:49 am

Today was another filing day for me. I went into the office and Mr. Stanton had me filing the case were a man sued waltham because a city truck hit his fence and car. The man wanted way more money than he deserved so the case had to go to trial. It took about a year and I filed the whole case by months and dates. I had to set it up and then put it into a big filing cabinet with a bunch of other important cases that Mr. Stanton had to deal with. Filing is a lot of work, it takes a lot of time and there is just so much paper to file in a lawyers office on a case. 

May 14, 2009  Time Worked: 8- 3 Time Written: 11:45 pm

Today I had the opportunity to head to court. I went to the Probate court once again. I got to sit in on a trial that had been going on for about 4 months that had to do with a man who owed his wife about 10 months worth of child support. The man kept making excuses on why he could not pay the child support but the funny thing to the judge was that the man had a unbelievable income and didn't know what  and where the money was going. the Judge thought that was a bunch of crap and sentenced him to jail time until he could pay off the amount of money he owed. The man played it off like he didn't know where the money was going but I think he will finally pay it off after he serves a Little time in jail. 

May 13, 2009 Time Worked: 8- 4  Time Written : 9:22 pm

Today I worked in the office and filed a case that dealt with a fire truck being struck by a electricity poll. It was hit twice and faced a lot of damage and they tried to blame the city for the accident. The case went on for a good 3 years and I had to file the cases letters from lawyers and the damage records in chronological order from months and dates. It took all my time up and I had to finish it today.

May 12. 2009 Time Worked: 8-3:00 Time Written: 5:02 pm

Today I had to go through 4 big boxes containing hundreds of documents that involve a case where the city got sued for a person who was arrested and then release by the police and harmed himself. Most of the documents were lawyers letters back and forth but other items I had to look at were medical records and photographs. It apparently was a very big case that the city tried and lost at a jury trial. But the City felt that the judge made a mistake in explaining the law to the jury and the city was appealing that error. Even though the issues on appeal do not have to do with a lot of the material in the file, it still has to be assembled for the appeal. I began to work on it but could not finish and they told me a law student coming in next week would probably spend about two weeks putting the whole case in the proper order and making all the copies.

May 11, 2009 Hours Worked: 8-3  Time written: 5:18 pm

Today I reviewed some documents on a tax case. I went to the Registry of deeds and spoke with a title examiner who was recording information on tax documents for the City. I also watched as his used a computer system to run down information on a price of property was was being sold because the property owner owed too much money to the back. the attorney explained to me a little bit about the process of bidders needing to know how much money was owed on the property before they could bid. The Registry of Deeds is an old building but had huge tv's that displayed information scattered throughout the building. There was old dusty books but most people were using the modern computers at the building.

May 8, 2009 Time Worked: 8-2:30  Time written 2:38 pm 

On Friday I went into the office to finish what I started the day before which was filing the big city case. It took at least two hours. After I finished filing the case, which filled up the whole 4 draw filing cabinet, Mr. Stanton tried to explain the case to me once again, but it was just too confusing I didn't really understand it at all. After that he took me out to lunch with the other lawyers. Sometimes on Fridays all the city lawyers and a few close friends get together and go to lunch to catch up on the week and talk law and how there week in court and everything went. It was nice to see how they react to each other speaking and how different cases were saw and the outcome of different cases. It was good to meet all the lawyers as well. 

May 7, 2009 Hour worked: 8-2:30 Time written 11:11pm

 Today I worked on Civil rights case involving a City employee. It was a very large case taking up 4 draws of a filing cabinet, each draw held 3 feet of paper meaning it was more than 12 feet of just paperwork! I was asked to sort through the correspondence since January between the lawyers, court, and people involved in the case and it took more than four hours and was hundreds of pieces of paper including letters, motions, doctor’s opinion and expert reports. Some documents were marked “confidential” and the lawyer explained to me that when he spoke to different Departments in the City he had to mark certain things that way otherwise they could be subject to a law in Massachusetts that says almost all records held by the City are available to the public. However, because the case was in litigation he had things that he had to discuss with Department Heads in confidence so they are marked “Confidential” so that he could do his job and represent the City. But he said that he may still have to disclose the records to a judge “in camera” to make sure they could be kept confidential. A Judge could then make sure he was not violating the law. The lawyer told me he must always be careful to keep to the facts and his legal opinion on a case so that he does not make an inappropriate comment that could harm the city or its reputation. Even though I spent hours on the case, and even though he tried to explain portions of it to me it seemed way too complex. 

May 6, 2009 Time worked: 7-3:30 Time Written 11:53 pm

Today I got to look at a whole new side of the law system. I was taken to The Probate Court in Cambridge. I would Shadow Mr. Quinn. His job consists of a majority of cases in Divorce court, and seeing that clients get paid there child support and all that stuff. I sat in on a case that consisted of a man who had not paid his child support in about 3 months and over time that bill ads up. He was taken to court by his ex wife who wanted the expenses that were due to her and her child. The man didn't really have a lot of money he stated that he was out of a job and times were very hard. The court has had enough of him and sentenced him to make a payment today before 3 o clock or else he would be held in jail until he could come up with the amount that was put on the table for him to pay. He then went out and made a phone call to try and get the money. The Probate court deals with hearings that involve divorced couples trying to get payments and awarding property and money from one another. It was a change to see this and it was pretty interesting to see what goes on in divorced couples lives. 

May 5, 2009 7-1:30 pm  1:30 pm

Today Mr. Stanton had me shadow Frank Craig. Mr. Craig is a criminal defense lawyer. After hearing about what he does, which is try to get the best possible plea or make his client be proven innocent. I went to the Boston Manciple Court today and sat in on a case. The case was about a 17 year old adult that was being charged with carrying a gun without a license, trespassing, loaded weapon and resisting arrest. The 17 year old pleaded guilty and made a plea with the common wealth that he would serve 18 months in prison. This is mandatory. In the state of mass. if you are caught with a weapon you have to serve 18 months in prison. His plea consisted of 18 months and then 1 year of probation. The 17 year old had no high school education either. I was sitting about 10 feet away from him and saw him get taken away in chains around his feet. It was a very interesting case and i was excited to see it. 

May 4th, 2009 Hours Worked: 10-4  Entry Written 6:17 pm Day 1

Today was my first day at the Government Center in the city of Waltham. I went to meet my Sponsor, Attorney of the city of Waltham's, Luke Stanton. Mr. Stanton went over the outlook of his job at first. He had me read the city laws, and his job description. It stated that he was a solicitor of the City of Waltham. There are 3 other Solicitors and that report to there boss who is the City lawyer. After I got a good grasp of understanding Mr. Stanton's job, he put me right to work. We went to look at a claim that the city had gotten. It was a broken fence that a city worker fixing a water problem knocked over. Therefore the city needs to fix it. We went to look at the fence to make sure it was a legit claim. After that we went back to his office and he put me on another assignment. He had me take a look at the city waste claim. He had me put all the paper work from that claim in chronological order by years, and placing them into folders and filing them. I learned a lot about Mr. Stanton's job and how he is an important asset to the City of Waltham.