con law today

Posted on May 14, 2012 by Legal Anomaly

final in just 3 hours. how do i feel? like shit!

professor is too good. he makes this seem so easy but once u start reviewing and putting all these concepts together on ur own w/o him, u realize u don’t know shit.

out of a, b, and c quarter , i only found b quarter fairly simple. and i mean the applicability of the laws.  a and this final quarter i have struggled tremendously in understanding how to apply these stupid rules.  what has caused me great grief these last few days was just trying to understand how to apply the regulations imposed by govt on speech. content based, content neutral, expressive purpose, etc…

well, now that i have some understanding of it i have to memorize all my rules. which i’m 80% done except i keep forgetting some factors like O’Brien which is applied to content neutral speech

law school is to teach u how to cope with the insane stress, not learn the law. fuckers!

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new day

Posted on May 7, 2012 by Legal Anomaly

happy to report i’m a little more relaxed today. ystrday i literally spent all day/night working on evidence. and i still didn’t finish! woke up early today and finished it. am at a good place w/evidence right now. took a nice break and just chilled. and at 9pm am ready to review con law and hopefully be at a good place w/this by tuesday.  i say tuesday cuz tomorrow, monday, is my review.

last time i was ahead of schedule w/my study material was during my first year.  let’s hope i can pull those grades again too.  i am going to step it up again during my senior year.  i took it way too easy this 3rd year. i don’t wanna loose focus again.  need to stay dedicated.

on another note, i start an internship at a law office on tuesday.  just 2x  a week 4 hours each day.  and yes, it’s unpaid :/ but at this point i really need the experience.  i only have 3 months of legal experience from a year ago at some other law office. and from the interviews i’ve had, apparently it’s not enough.  so, i will devote myself for the next year till i graduate to slave labor all in the name of EXPERIENCE!!!!

10 more days!!

 

 

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nightmare…

Posted on May 6, 2012 by Legal Anomaly

….is over in 11 days.  not kidding! i am seriously living this nightmare which i can’t wake up from.

con law exam – 1 wk from monday; evidence exam – 1 wk from this wednesay

study time today alone: 8 hours (already deducted the breaks i took) and i’m still not done. hoping to continue at least for another hour..2 if i can.

today was all evidence. reviewing the codes, making sure i understand them all, reviewing past exam questions to see if i can issue spot, and am now slicing down the code differences between the FED and CA.

tomorrow will be con law. i will review it w/a fine tooth comb tomorrow and monday. i dont need to compare codes but i still need to make sure i remember and understand 30 wks of material.

have to go finish these codes :’(

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fucking evidence

Posted on April 28, 2012 by Legal Anomaly

i cant even enjoy con law cuz evidence has just consumed me.  anyway, just wanted to drop a quick note.  monday is our last wk. then 1 wk to study for finals and then finals :/

i need to pass con law. have passed the a and b qtr exams but who the hell knows. i still get nervous that i wont make it to “senior” year.  always that damn pressure.

worked on evidence till thu. then ystrday started on con law. need to continue cuz i dont have an outline for this quarter yet and that is a  no no.  i dont recall ever waiting till wk 9, more like wk 10 to start an outline. oh well. that was all due to evidence. well, also me moving and dealing w/some family crap.

gotta run and catch up on con law now.

 

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i’m back

Posted on April 16, 2012 by Legal Anomaly

sorry been away for a while.  had a lot going on w/the move and the midterm this last saturday.  still busy and now have to read 60 pgs for tonight’s con law class.

i moved to a much better place. my room is ginormous and i can definitely study for the bar in this house.  there is also a study den which i have made good use of this past week.

i now need to cram 60 pgs within a couple of hours since i have to then go walk the dogs and i’d like to get a work out in too.

oh before i go, turns out we lost someone.  we are now down to 22.  rumor is that this individual hit the 12 unit mark and didn’t want to take any chances with failing evidence in may. if this person fails evidence then the person will be disqualified. so, the person was being smart in just withdrawing.  hopefully, if this person really wants to continue w/this, the person will start 3rd year all over again in the fall.   oh, one more thing before i go, on friday we went to hear oral arguments in appeals cases last friday and everyone in class was obviously supposed to show up for it.  one individual did NOT show up.  what a dumb ass.  first of all the professor conducting this is not someone you want to piss off.  I mean no one wants to mess w/her.  even another member of the faculty made a comment when he found out she was the professor for something that “oh no. i don’t want to step on her toes. she’ll find me in the parking lot and beat me up.”  of course he said it as a joke but he was serious that she is a tuff cookie and u just don’t wanna cross her.  so, this dumb ass doesn’t show up. AND this person is in danger of flunking out of 3rd year.  so, apparently this person believed the court thing was at 1 and not 8:30.  yeah. right! the professor only said it a gazillion times and we even have a memo sent to us with all details and directions.  oh well. i don’t think this person will make it thru to senior year, not with this attitude and will. if u r in danger of failing out, u check and double check and triple check everything!!!! u dont sleep out of the fucking stress.  ha!! well maybe that’s what i would do.

for now we are down to 22. but we are definitely going to loose at least another person. and maybe even a couple more.  i’m going to work my ass off to make sure that isn’t me.  if i fail con law i’m out.  con law is 9 units.  haven’t failed the first two exams and i’m going to make sure i don’t fail the 3rd one.  all 3 exams are evenly averaged in.

ttyl….

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fucking law school

Posted on April 3, 2012 by Legal Anomaly

still deciphering rules.  i didn’t even read for con law tonight cuz i spent my morning trying to dumb down evidence rules.   then i had to walk the dogs and i went on an interview.  interview went great BUT the attorney told me the only problem he had was that i’d be taking off 2-3 months next year to study for the bar and he can’t afford to have someone leave. i pointed out that there is no guarantee the person he hires will stay that long.  didn’t matter. it’s a chance he wasn’t sure he wanted to take.

well, felt good to have someone finally acknowledge my worth, even if he passes on me.

oh and i may have found a place.  not sure yet. not a done deal.

made an appt w/a faculty member to review my remedies answers this wed.  lets see if i really fucked it up that bad or if the professor is just crazy.

as much as i hate this i have to change my attitude.  can’t let it be a hindrance on my academic performance.    i spoke to some newbies today.  poor things.  i told them straight up “this shit sucks!” then i went on to explain the sacrifices they will have to make and to make sure that this is what they truly want to do. 1 person said he worked full time.  i told him to kiss his family and friends good bye.  poor souls.

i was speaking to a senior and she told me when she first started after class she’d be hanging out in the parking lot w/her classmates and she’d see the 3rd and 4th yrs leaving school disgruntled.  she said she now sees why.

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evidence

Posted on April 2, 2012 by Legal Anomaly

i really hate my life right now.  slept 5 hours. and trying to decipher evidence rules since i’m behind.  here is one. maybe ya’ll can help.

 

FRE 412 Sex Offenses Cases; Relevance of Alleged Victim’s Past Sexual Behavior or Alleged Sexual Predisposition

(a) Evidence generally inadmissible.

The following evidence is not admissible in any civil or criminal proceeding involving alleged sexual misconduct except as provided in subdivisions (b) and (c)

(1) evidence offered to prove that any alleged victim engaged in other sexual behavior.

(2) evidence offered to prove any alleged victim’s sexual predisposition

(b) Exceptions

(1) in a criminal case, the following evidence is admissible, if otherwise admissible under these rules:

(a) evidence of specific instances of sexual behavior by the alleged victim offered to prove that a person other than the accused was the source of semen, injury or other physical evidence;

(b) evidence of specific instances of sexual behavior by the alleged victim with respect to the person accused of the sexual misconduct offered by the accused to prove consent or by the prosecution;

(c) evidence the exclusion of which would violate the constitutional rights of the defendant

(2) In a civil case, evidence offered to prove the sexual behavior or sexual predisposition of any alleged victim is admissible if it is otherwise admissible under these rules and its probative value substantially outweighs the danger of harm to any victim and of unfair prejudice to any party. Evidence of an alleged victim’s reputation is admissible only if it has been placed in controversy by the alleged victim.

(c) Procedure to determine admissibility.

(1) a party intending to offer evidence under subdivision (b) must

(a) file a written motion at least 14 days before trial specifically describing the evidence and stating the purpose for which it is offered unless the court, for good cause requires a different time for filing or permits filing during trial; and

(b) serve the motion on all parties and notify the alleged victim or, when appropriate, the alleged victim’s guardian or representative.

(2) before admitting evidence under this rule the court must conduct a hearing in camera and afford the victim and parties a right to attend and be heard. The motion, related papers, and the record of the hearing must be sealed and remain under seal unless the court orders otherwise.

 

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grades

Posted on April 1, 2012 by Legal Anomaly

gonna have to make this quick.  spent half the morning looking for apartments (nother story) and i have to go out in a bit for some family reunion thing.  only leaves me w/almost no time for studying. AND i need to step it up.  oh and ystrday i spent most the day snowboarding.  need to start acting like i go to law school again. i’ve been taking it way to fucking easy.  just have to keep remembering – ONE year left!!!!!

grades posted fri.

remedies – fail!!! dont ask how. i have no idea. gonna find out though. its the same nutty professor who taught real estate.  i knew nothing of real estate yet i passed that shit.  i knew and still remember remedies yet i fail that shit. wtf?? i hate when that happens.  if it were related to civ pro then i would move on but i’m not having it. gonna talk to someone to have them explain wtf i did wrong.  as crazy as that professor is , this exam was not difficult. no hidden tricks or anything. pretty straight forward.

anyway….

appellate advocacy – passed. did pretty well actually, especially considering i didn’t put that much effort into it.  to bad every class can’t be this way.

con law – passed. would have liked to do better cuz i was on top of my game (so i thought) more this qtr than i was during during the first.  gonna have to really step it up so i can finish the year w/a decent grade in this class.  next and final exam is in may.

evidence  - didn’t pass this qtr. still have the may exam to hopefully pass the class.  we’ll see. gonna try but this class is hard.  it’s very rules based but u have to make sure u apply them correctly. this last exam was mostly hearsay and it’s just so damn confusing. it was worth only 30% of our grade. the may exam will be worth 70%.  i didn’t fail it by much so there is still hope for me in may.  need to really work hard on this one. though i can afford to fail this class i certainly don’t want to. that shit is embarrassing.  so, gonna have to work reeeeeeely hard to get this shit down :/  gggrrr.

a lot of people failed both con law and evidence.  grades weren’t pretty.  can’t remember if i mentioned but both those professors told us last week that these exams were the worst they graded (ever.)  helped us feel like shit cuz we don’t do that enough on our own.  well, to be precise, evidence professor said they were the worst ever and con law professor just said they were bad…real bad.

i already know of 2 people who are in danger of getting kicked out if they don’t pull a miracle in may.  sad. wanted to cry knowing that.  but from what i’ve seen and know they don’t study nearly as hard as they should.  however, both of them also work full time and both are extremely bright.  in my opinion 1 of them is quicker than i am. the other not so much but still very bright.  if i worked full time (where i can’t study during my work hours) i would have flunked out a long time ago.  no way would i have been able to keep up grades.

sometimes i feel i shouldn’t feel so bad about others and just focus on worrying about myself.  anyway, gotta run :/

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grades this Friday…i think

Posted on March 27, 2012 by Legal Anomaly

con law professor last night pretty much told us our grades sucked!

the exams are graded anonymously and though professor isn’t supposed to give us much info about them he did tell us he failed about 5-6 out of 23 :/

i hope i wasn’t one of those fails.  ”a” quarter i barely passed and i didn’t really study. so, if studying is any reflection of grading, this “b” qtr i should do a little better.  i studied from day 1 for b qtr.  sigh.  i can only hope i studied right. i know i screwed up my standing argument on all questions but standing wasn’t the main issue. it was just something the prof told us we should start out with and last night he told us if we hadn’t spoken about it it wouldnt have been a big deal.  nice to know.  had i friggin known that i wouldnt have spoken about it.  if i fuck up the argument than i’ll prob get more pts deducted than not having mentioned it at all, or writing about standing in as great detail as i did will only further fuck up the argument, further deducting points.

well, hopefully thats the only area i screwed up in.  there was 1 question i vaguely remember having trouble with.  but 1 out of 3 questions isn’t enough to fail “b” qtr.

all i know is i couldnt stop thinking about it.  at the end of class a classmate asked him “so how bad DID we do?” and that’s when those of us who are completely neurotic stayed behind and attacked him, behaving like 1L’s. sorta embarrassing but he totally fucked with our heads when he walks into class shaking his head and sighing.  so for 3 hours those of us who are completely sick in the head sweated for 3 friggin hours till that classmate asked him.  and i know i’m still sweating 12 hours later :/ and i will continue to friggin sweat till Friday.   i haven’t sweated grades coming out since 1st year.   fawk!!!

and then the prof felt bad and told us when his daughter fails he tells her it’s not a reflection of her intelligence.  fuck man! we don’t care.  ur kid is not in law school where if u don’t make grades u just get kicked out having invested so much yet nothing to show for it except being a dumb ass for getting kicked out due to grades. and hoping to at least get a job at starbucks cuz at least they provide health insurance and if that friggin law passes, those of us broke asses w/jobs that dont provide health coverage won’t be able to afford our own coverage and be fined or taxed or whatever the fuck they are calling the penalty now.

shit! even with a JD i will probably still work at starbucks! and i don’t mean the corporate office either.

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Honda

Posted on March 20, 2012 by Legal Anomaly

I must say, i LOVE brining my car to the Honda services department b/c they take minimum 2-3 hours and I get to study in one of the most conducive places I have found to date.  They have these desks w/partitions, it’s bright, they have this machine which makes amazing though sugary coffee (explains why it’s so amazing), they have a popcorn popper, they have free bottled water.  Geez. what more can I say?? Are you convinced??

So, turns out I really shouldnt be worried about flunking out of school.  I have created a spreadsheet which details all of my grades and calculates w/the units of each course my overall gpa.  Turns out, even if I flunk a couple of classes by a lot..I mean by an unheard of score, I STILL won’t dip under the required gpa.  Apparently, I did pretty okay in many of my classes to secure my gpa no matter how horribly I fail (um..assuming I do fail a class or 2), that is of course NOT my goal.  I don’t want to fail anything but at least I dont have that pressure of not making grades.

To date I’ve only failed 2 classes and I failed them miserably.  Unfortunately, it brought my gpa down tremendously. Would have been nice if I didn’t fail those classes or at least not by that much, then my gpa would be way up there w/the top students but I guess i’ll just have to live with that. those shitty grades have humbled me, or should i say, those shitty grades have made me feel like a complete nincompoop and totally unworthy of finishing or even attempting to take the bar.  well, enough self criticism.  I’m just happy that I’m definitely safe and I will see my senior year.  Hopefully I’ll finish my 3rd year strong. I would love to bring up my gpa to what it used to be, but at this point, i’ll just be happy with passing.  I just want to graduate and then focus on ripping the BAR a new asshole.

Currently we are down to 23 students in my class.  The trend seems to be to loose about 1-2 students at end of 3rd year.  I hope we don’t loose anyone due to grades.

One more thing b/4 I go, since I have such a light load till May. I have decided to take a look at my brother in law’s case.  He is in prison for some vehicular manslaughter charge, but he wasn’t the actual person who hit and killed the other party.  He was blamed for being contributorily negligent.  I really have to look at the case myself.  I’m not even sure of the exact charge is.  But, from what my sister tells me it doesn’t seem like he got a fair trial.  also, in the end he ended up pleading out.  It’s only b/c like so many others, they just  dont know better and they are afraid.  If you don’t know the system and you hear “plead and get 4 yrs or go to trial and face 20+ yrs” many scared individuals who are innocent will take the plea.

So, I’ve been itching to get my hands on those files to review it and just makes sense of everything that happened for my own personal knowledge and try to relate it to what I’ve learned as well.  Can’t wait to start attacking those bins :-)

Based on what i read I’ll see if I create another blog of how justice can at times be unjust.

till next time folks.  sayonara.

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