fandomhigh | Lawyering Up: Week 1, Wed, Period 2 (1/9)

"Good morning everyone," said the man at the front of the room who was wearing a very nice suit, was from New York, and yet amazingly was not Barney. "For those who don't know me, my name's Nathan Petrelli. I'll be your teacher for Lawyering Up this semester. You can call me Mr. Petrelli. Some of you may know me from being friends with my brother Peter. You can also call me Mr. Petrelli. But I can be flexible about 'Nathan' when we're out of class."

Nathan then passed out a syllabus, a sheet of rules, and a copy of the roster. "On these you can find out what the class is going to do, what's expected of you, and if you're supposed to be here in the first place. Bear in mind the first two are subject to change without notice. That's what we in the business call the fine print."

Done with that, Nathan then passed out a sign-in sheet. "I know that many of your classes so far have been about introducing yourselves and going home. We're actually going to be doing work. But I would like to get to know you so when you put sign in also tell me why you're taking the class. That's just for my benefit, so don't worry about being right or wrong.

"Like the rules say," Nathan continued, "I want you here on time, I want you to behave, and I want to see that you're trying to use your mind. You'll be graded on effort as much as results. This includes your weekly extra-credit challenge. Anybody who wants to get an edge in their grades can do so by bringing in as many lawyer jokes as they can find. You'll get bonus points if I haven't heard them before."

Nathan paused to make sure everyone seemed to be following along. "This class isn't going to make you a lawyer. But it will give you an idea of different aspects of the American legal system. If nothing else it'll give you the ability to be a smart shopper when you need a lawyer to help you down the line. And make no mistake: you will at some point need a lawyer. Even if you don't get in trouble with the law. You might get married, buy a home, need to sue someone, want to patent something - you name it.

"But we'll start with the basics," Nathan said. He leaned against the front of his desk. "Using the law to save yourself. Normally they say anyone who represents themselves in a court of law has a fool for a client, but today we're going to ignore that. I want you to get a taste for how the law works by using it to get yourself out of trouble. The situation is this: You've been given a traffic citation. Maybe for speeding, maybe for something else. It's up to you. Now you have to deal with me, the judge.

"Argue your case. Are you guilty or not guilty? If you're guilty should I fine you? Jail you? Send you to traffic school?" Nathan held up his hand to forestall any interruptions. "Before anyone starts to panic, I'm not asking you to come up with a case that even the Supreme Court would approve of. Don't worry about formalities of the legal system. Just worry about this."

Nathan handed out another sheet. "Precedent. Simply put it means we'll let you get away with something if you can prove that somebody else either got away with the same thing, or something really close. Those of you with younger siblings may recognize this as the 'But Maaaaaaa, how come he gets to stay up late?' approach." Nathan grinned.

"To help you out you have these." Nathan handed out a few more materials to use. "You don't have to read all of this right now. Just pick a violation that you were cited for, find something to help your case, and use it to mount your defense. Tell me why you should get away with it because somebody else did. Or tell me why you're innocent because somebody else was.

"I'm looking for creativity and anything that shows me you were even vaguely paying attention," Nathan added, with another grin. "And if you think the lecture was bad, imagine being stuck in court all day.

"Take a little time to prepare yourself, and I'll be here when you're ready."

[ooc: ~~wait for~~ OCD is up! Go nuts! I'll pick up pings in the morning]

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Name, and reason why you're taking the class

Listen, take notes, talk amongst yourselves, boggle at all the handouts.

If you have any questions, comments, or lawyer jokes for Nathan during the class, here's where they go.

Nathan's sitting at his desk, waiting to be impressed by your brilliance.

Nathan's taking his time packing up, in case anyone wants to talk privately.

Save the OOC, save the world.

Classes will usually go up the night before... right before I go to bed. Will pick up pings tomorrow.

And feel free to ping here if you want your character to get detention for any reason.

Z will be absent due to er, running away from home. Please accept my OOC apologies and my acceptance of any IC consequences Nathan sees fit to dole out upon her return.

And I'm really sorry she's missing this class, because the concept of actually getting to argue your case is completely foreign to her.

Awwww. *cuddles her*

Thanks for the heads-up. As far as consequences go I'd say when she's back have her talk to Nathan ICly so he at least knows why she was gone. Heck, he'd probably just make her argue for whether or not she should get a punishment of some kind. So there ya go! Arguing her own case. =)

Meg Manning, interested in a career in law in the future

Lucas Scott, it sounded educational

Wow, Peter's brother was way hot. Meg might have caught herself doing more staring than note taking during the lecture.

Dean Winchester, because the school's computer system hates me.

Andros, interested in learning more about Terran legal systems

T.R. Wexler, intends to become the greatest business lawyer on the face of the earth before she's thirty.

Andros took notes and looked over the handouts.

Turtle would have been listening and paying the utmost attention if it weren't for that roster that had gone around at the beginning of class. You know. The one that had her real name on it. Eyes as wide as saucers, Turtle stared for a moment before looking around the class. Maybe no one would notice? Of course no one would notice. Who would bother looking at the roster, anyway? Especially with all the other handouts? Yeah. That was it. No one would notice.

She tried carefully to listen, but her attention span seemed a little shortened at the moment. She was feeling like it was a good thing that she already had a good grounding in what Mister Petrelli was talking about.

Sam Winchester, possibly interested in a career in law in the future.

After taking a moment to clear her throat, straighten her hair, and wish she'd worn a bit more professional of an outfit to class today (she was probably not going to miss a day of class without that suit she got for Christmas after this), Turtle took the floor. She took a deep breath, still a little paranoid about the whole name thing, but determined to not let it have a poor influence on her performance. "I am here before you today, your Honor," she gave him a respectful nod of her head, "to contest that the parking violation issued to me on the ninth of January, 2008, was done so under false pretense..."

With an introduction like that, it shouldn't be a surprise that the rest of Turtle's appeal followed suit ~~although handwavey, because her mun, unlike her, knows nothing about the legal system, Lord help us~~. It included several presentation of the (imaginary) photos from several angles of the parking spot in question, with the defense that it was a completely legal parking spot, as well as the mention of several witnesses that will attest to the fact that she was, indeed, during this time, properly parked and that the fine was entirely unjustified.

When finished, she took a bow.

"Thank you, your Honor."

Eve Levine, has the weirdest definition of fun EVER

OMFG.

"It's unlawful to watch television, a motion picture or similar video display while driving. Television monitors must not be placed within the driver's view."

TRUE STORY. I was part of a caravan coming back from a group trip and we're behind this one guy who all of a sudden just jerks to a stop. The driver of the car I was in was all confused, I was flailing because my book had just gone flying, and EVERYBODY has to pull over into the gas station parking lot because the fuckwad in front of me -- whose name I forget -- was distracted by the PORTABLE DVD PLAYER IN THE FRONT OF THE CAR and rear-ended the kid in front of him.

We gave him shit about that for the rest of the year.

Traffic violations for the win, man. Eve was busy going over the handouts and planning out her defense.

This was probably Not A Good Thing.

Wyatt Halliwell, because I figured it would be beneficial to have a good working knowledge of the legal system ~~not that I ever expect to get in trouble with the law, no, no, of course not~~

Massachusetts had a rash of arrests due to driving while watching porn not long ago.

As much as I'd like to think it was because they were so busy that they didn't have any other time to watch porn, I know it was just because the people were idiots.

Chris Halliwell, because a basic understanding of the legal system and how it works is never a bad thing ~~when you're a half-witch/half-whitelighter whose parents had to fake their deaths because of Homeland Security~~.

Page 1 of 9

Lawyering Up: Week 1, Wed, Period 2 (1/9)

Sign In (1/9/08)

During the Lecture (1/9/08)

Talk to Nathan (1/9/08)

Defend Yourself! (1/9/08)

After Class (1/9/08)

OOC (1/9/08)

Re: OOC (1/9/08)

Re: OOC (1/9/08)

Re: Sign In (1/9/08)

Re: Sign In (1/9/08)

Re: During the Lecture (1/9/08)

Re: Sign In (1/9/08)

Re: Sign In (1/9/08)

Re: Sign In (1/9/08)

Re: During the Lecture (1/9/08)

Re: During the Lecture (1/9/08)

Re: Sign In (1/9/08)

Re: Defend Yourself! (1/9/08)

Re: Sign In (1/9/08)

Re: OOC (1/9/08)

Re: During the Lecture (1/9/08)

Re: Sign In (1/9/08)

Re: OOC (1/9/08)

Re: OOC (1/9/08)

Re: Sign In (1/9/08)