The 2 Bankruptcy attorneys

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Keith is a paralegal at a law firm with 10 lawyers, where he is one of 7 paralegals. Three of the paralegals work primarily for the firm’s personal injury attorneys, 3 work for the estate planning attorneys, and Keith works for the 2 bankruptcy attorneys. Because of recent financial and economic turmoil in the country and state where the firm is located, bankruptcy filings have skyrocketed.

Naturally, Keith’s workload has also increased and he is now averaging about 65 hours per week. Keith is salaried and does not receive overtime pay, as do none of the other paralegals in his office. However, the firm does pay its paralegals an annual bonus that is tied to their performance reviews.

Keith’s 2 supervising attorneys know that Keith’s work during this very busy time deserves more than the maximum annual bonus so they get permission to have him granted an extra week vacation. In addition, the supervising attorneys send him and his wife on an all-expenses-paid skiing trip to Colorado, which includes airfare, a rental car, 5 nights in a ski lodge and lift tickets.

The firm’s paralegals are unaware that Keith’s supervising attorneys have given him this gift. Does this vacation package violate the prohibition against fee splitting/sharing between lawyers and nonlawyers? Explain your answers fully.

Contemplated suicide

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A troubled 24-year-old man consults the head pastor of a church and several of its pastoral counsel. Severely depressed, he tells them he has contemplated suicide. Defendants advise him that suicide is an acceptable alternative in some cases. Defendants visit him in the hospital after he unsuccessfully attempts suicide, and he tells them that he will reattempt suicide when he is released.

Defendants do not advise the doctors or the young man’s family about this conversation. Two weeks after he is released from the hospital, the young man commits suicide. Plaintiffs, the parents of the young man, sue for wrongful death, alleging, among other things, “clergy malpractice.” How would you go about determining whether Defendants were negligent? Nally v. Grace Community Church, 763 P.2d 948 (Cal.), cert. denied, 109 S. Ct. 1644 (1989

LEGAL AND ETHICAL DILEMMAS AS HUMAN SERVICE WORKER

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ACWA Code of Ethics Scenarios: LEGAL AND ETHICAL DILEMMAS AS HUMAN SERVICE WORKER (LAW) You have been appointed as a Case Manager at the Dodgy Human Services Agency (DHSA). The Agency’s values are “Client-Centred, Compassion, Integrity, Dignity and Inclusivity.” The DHSA is facing an audit of their service delivery practice by their funding partner. Your Line Manager, Sally, has asked you to ensure that the DHSA is compliant with the ACWA ethical guidelines.

She knows that as a member of the Australian Community Workers Association (ACWA) who graduated from EQUALS International, you will have learnt how to interpret the ACWA’s ethical guidelines. “Check us out,” Sally says, “and let me know what we are doing right, what we need to improve on, and anything that needs an urgent fix.”

The good thing about joining a small agency was that there was going to be plenty of work for you to do. Already, on your first day, you had been handed three ongoing cases that you were to take over.

 

For each of the following scenarios, identify actions, behaviours, processes and/or procedures that are:

a) Compliant with ACWA’s Code of Ethics

b) Potentially problematic or non-compliant with ACWA’s Code of Ethics

c) A breach of ACWA’s Code of Ethics

 

For each aspect you identify, link it directly to one or more sections of the Code. Where you note a problem or urgent fix required, suggest an improvement, supported by the Code. You must also describe how the Agency’s values are or are not reflected in the scenario.

Scenario-1: Your 17-year-old client, Alex, is under “guardianship of the Minister” and wants you to arrange for them to leave foster care because her current foster carers will not accept her desire to transition from her birth gender (male) to her preferred gender identity (female). You have never delt with a transgender youth before.

When you ask your line manager about getting some professional development training, they tell you to “use Google like everyone else; there is no money or time to send staff on training days.”

Scenario-2: Alex has just disclosed to you that one of her teachers has offered to take her on a weekend trip to Robe so that she can get away from the pressures of her foster family. Alex says she likes talking with this teacher and has met them for coffee at a café in Glenelg a couple of times and he seems really nice. When you tell her that you will need to report this teacher to the Department, she starts yelling at you because “this is unfair!” and “you said everything I told you would be confidential!”

Scenario-3: Cindy, who works in the office next to yours, appeared at your door with an unusual question, “do you happen to speak Punjabi? I have an international student in my office,” she tells you, “and I have been explaining to them the conditions of their student visa with respect to the number of hours they can work.

But they keep telling me that their boss says this must work every night or he will have them deported. I don’t think they understand what I am telling them. I’ve made a note in their file that I warned them about compliance, but before I close the interview with them, I thought that we might give it another try – if you speak Punjabi, that is.” Unfortunately, you don’t speak Punjabi.

 

How to identify this in Short answers?

 

The child has ingested A large quantity of aspirin

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The father of a small child takes the child to an emergency room and tells the attendants that the child has ingested a large quantity of aspirin. The attendants specifically tell the father to advise the physician of this fact but the father fails to make mention of it. The physician diagnoses the child as having the flu. The child dies shortly thereafter, and the parents sue the physician for negligence.

Should the parents be able to recover? What defense might the physician raise? Hudson v. St. Paul Mercury Insurance Co., 219 So. 2d 524 (La. 1969).

The Superior Court of California

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Create a one-page memo based on the following information: (1) A file-stamped copy of the Complaint showing that it was filed in the Superior Court of California on June 20, 2021.

(2) A file-stamped copy of a Proof of Service of Summons and Complaint stating that the Summons, Complaint, and clerk’s notices were personally served on defendant Jones on August 8, 2022.

(3) You have discovered nothing subsequent to the Proof of Service of Summons and Complaint has been filed by either party in the case.  There has been no communication with the defendant’s attorney, Fred Smith, since before your office filed the lawsuit and made a settlement demand in writing to Mr. Smith in late June 2022.

(4)  For legal research purposes, refer to CCLD Chapters 7; 15-end, and Chapter 8 as your authority for any suggested path to be followed.  You need not conduct research beyond what is stated in your authority for the purposes of this assignment.

Statutory interpretation exercise

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PART B:  Statutory interpretation exercise A Commonwealth Act prohibits the entry of’….dogs, cats and other animals into Parliament House’.  The relevant section has been added to the commonwealth Act after a number of animals caused nuisance by barking during guided tours, damaging furniture and defecating on the premises.  Lance is on holidays in Canberra and has booked a tour of Parliament House. He wants to bring his pet rabbit, Lettuce, with him. He is joined by his blind friend, Bruce, who also wants to join in the tour.  Bruce relies on his guidedog Bandit.

 

Advice Lance and Bruce whether their respective animals can join them on the Parliament House tour, using the relevant too(s) of statutory interpretation.

 

Your answer follows the IRAC method (Issue, Rule, Application, Conclusion).

 

This is a fictitious act.  You are not required to undertake independent research or consult additional legislation that would assist you in defining any relevant terms for your answer to this hypo. Your sole task is to apply the relevant rules of statutory interpretation to this fictitious act.

The Implementation of the Rome Statute in South Africa

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Critically discuss the implementation of the Rome Statute in South Africa and explain the cooperation regime between South Africa and the International Criminal Court (ICC). Support
your answer with relevant authority.

The Legal land mines on which an attorney can step

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The attorney by whom you have just been hired is a recent law school graduate. Early in his career, he discovers, through personal experience, many of the legal land mines on which an attorney can step. First, he advises a woman who was injured in an automobile accident that she has no viable cause of action.

Two days after the statute of limitations runs out, she consults with another attorney on a separate matter. This attorney advises her that she did indeed have a good cause of action for which she probably could have netted a considerable recovery. Next, unaware of the malpractice noose now dangling over his head, your attorney blithely decides not to relay a settlement offer to another client because in his opinion the client should not accept the offer.

When the case goes to trial, the client is awarded less than he would have received under the terms of the offer. The client is most displeased when he discovers that the terms of the settlement offer were never relayed to him. Finally, he forgets to file a list of exhibits and witnesses on the date it is due.

As a result, the judge refuses to allow his key witness to testify, and the case is lost when it goes to trial. Has professional negligence been committed What will clients in each of these cases have to prove if they allege professional negligence? What defenses can be raised? What might the attorney argue in his defense?

The “Social media trial of the century” by Time Magazine in 2011.

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Social Media Influences High- ProFile Murder Case The trial of Casey Anthony for the death of her daughter, Caylee, was dubbed the “social media trial of the century” by Time Magazine in 2011. During the trial, social media sites exploded with activity as people expressed their views about the trial on blogs, Facebook, and Twitter. The trial took place in the ninth Judicial Circuit Court located in Orlando, Florida. The Court used Twitter to keep more than 400 reporters up-to-date on the trial. in addition, there were Facebook pages honoring Caylee with tens of thousands of friends, and Twitter accounts that were adding followers at a rate of hundreds per day during the trial. A jury consultant for Casey Anthony’s attorneys, Amy singer, analyzed more than 40,000 negative and positive highly charged opinions on social media sites and blogs and used them to help the defense form its trial strategy.

Ms. singer and her team analyzed opinions about the defendant, evidence, and witness testimonies. she used these opinions to encourage the defense to change its strategy accordingly. For example, when the bloggers started to attack George Anthony for his extramarital affair, the defense team beefed up its questions against him. When the verdict was read, an online “lynch mob” escalated. At one point, a million people were blogging about the trial, not including the thousands more who were tweeting, texting, and discussing the case in online chat rooms.

This trial illustrated how social media gets an insight into the public’s mind and could revolutionize the way lawyers defend their clients.  Discuss how social media may have influenced the outcome of the case and answer the following questions:

a. Did the activity on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn affect the proceedings? If so, how?

b. Did access to social media and the opinions of the public give a party an unfair advantage? If so, which party? How?

c. Should media broadcast of trials be banned to discourage social media access? Why or why not?

d. Shouldlegalproceedingsbeforbiddenterritoryforsocialmedia?Whyorwhynot?

e. Do you think the jurors had access to social media at the time of the trial? If so, could they have been influenced?

f. How does social media facilitate “up to the minute” coverage of the proceedings?

The European Union

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The European Union announced that: “EU has adopted four packages of sanctions in response to Russia’s unprecedented military attack against Ukraine. The measure is designed to: Weaken the Kremlin’s ability to finance the war, and impose clear economic and
political costs on Russia’s political elite responsible for the invasion.

The measures include:
individual sanctions, economic sanctions, restrictions on media, diplomatic measures …”
(Available EU website at this link: EU sanctions on Russia).

NATO also indicated it has
imposed massive sanctions on Russia. (In a Statement by NATO Heads of State and
Government.) However, both the EU states and NATO members have declared that they are
not prepared to enter into direct armed conflict with Russia on the Ukraine issue.

In light of the EU and NATO statements above, discuss the relevant provisions of the UN
Charter regarding the regime of sanctions and the prohibition of the use of force. In your answer
consider articles 2(3), 2(4), and 41 of the UN Charter, as well as the judgment in Kadi’s
case on the freezing of assets.