palsgraf_polka

I was reading Pearson v Dodd for my torts class, and it is a case about a scandal exposed about Connecticut Senator Thomas Dodd in 1969 or so, and I wondered if he was Chris Dodd's Dad. One quick snap over to the internet and indeed, he was Chris Dodd's Dad. That's not the weird part. According to Chris Dodd's wikipedia page, he dated both Bianca Jagger and Carrie Fisher.

That's really hard to comprehend.

I was a lazy ass this weekend so I have to brief 7 cases before class tomorrow night. Procrastination is fun!

ETA 10:37pm: Got 6 of the 7 done (one took almost an hour - it was long and convoluted). I'll do one tomorrow at lunch and I'll be good to go. Now I am off to sleep.

Ok...I made it through 6 cases and 3 articles tonight. Tonight was concentrated on divorce and the divorce cases were much easier than the marriage cases I was doing yesterday.

So, that leaves me with one short divorce case I can do tomorrow at lunch and then 8 pages of articles to summarize and I'm good for class for tomorrow night.

Then I get a few days break, as we don't have class for 2 weeks due to spring break. So, I have 2 weeks to brief 8 cases. If I have time, I might brief ahead so I don't feel rushed later. I need to seriously try to break myself of this procrastination, as I won't be able to do this come Fall and I'm taking 3 classes and have to brief 20 a week.

I do find it interesting though that just in a couple of weeks of reading case after case my brain is whipping through legalese much better than it was before. Before I agonized with the writing and had to read something 2 or 3 times before I got the meaning, but now it reads like a novel, which is good. I'm hoping by the time Fall comes around this will be so easy it'll be a snap.

Anyway, I know I'm probably boring you with this stuff. But some of these cases are really interesting. I read one tonight, Aflalo v. Aflalo where an Orthodox Jewish woman wants a divorce from her Orthodox Jewish husband, but he won't give her a get which is a traditional Jewish decree, in writing and in Aramaic, that releases her from being his wife/property/slave and allows her to remarry. If he does not give her the get, if she has sex with or remarries another man, she is considered an adulteress, any subsequent children are considered illegitimate and cannot marry Jews, and she will be shunned by her peers and social groups. Usually this is used as a ransom so that the husbands can get more money or custody of children, but in this case, the husband genuinely did not want a divorce, but to reconcile. He did say though, that if the Beth Din, the Rabbinical court ordered him to give his wife the get he would, but that case wasn't being heard yet before the Beth Din. The wife wanted the court to order her husband to give her the get before the Beth Din ordered him to do so (among a few other items which I won't go into because it's boring and legal), but the court refused on 1st Amendment grounds saying that they cannot interfere with one's practice of religion (unless it is a dire possibly life threatening situation). The justice quoted Thomas Jefferson and it was a very interesting and well written opinion.

I tell you, I love this shit.

I am sitting in class waiting for it to start. And there's wifi! Tonight is the orientation where a 4th year student comes to speak to tell us about how we should brief cases, what to expect, etc.

Talk to you all later!

I got an A in my Organizing and Analyzing Evidence Class! Woohoo me!

One paper down, one paper to go tonight! I need more wine and a cigarette.

ETA: Finished them both at 9:30. Yay me.

06:22am - Let's ETA again, like we did last summer: Wish me luck on my final!

Ok...I'm 2/3 done with my assignment (I'm writing the rationale - Chef will get that) and I had to stop to dance to Herbie Hancock's Watermelon Man. I love that song.

And I got a B+ in Civil Litigation! Woohoo! 2 As and a B+! Yay me.

I just registered for my Winter Quarter classes. Legal Writing and Legal Research. I think they'll both be hard. But good news! Neither class is on campus! [does happy dance] One is at the law library in Santa Barbara, and the other is at the extension center which is right off the freeway.

Campus is a pain in the ass.

So, I'm excited! These classes will be so much more interesting than the ones this quarter. Although, yesterday for my Fundamentals of Paralegal Studies class we got to go down to the Ventura Law Library and we had to do a 20 item scavenger hunt in the books (no computers allowed). It was a blast. It would be a question like "What is the name of the case found at 52 Cal3d 1142?" And we would have to figure out what Cal was and where it was. It was so fun to thumb through old law books and find little nuggets of treasure.

I cannot wait until my legal research class. I'm all a twitter.