Discussion Question 1: Participating in a Litigation Process
What is your role as a litigation paralegal? Is your allegiance to the client, your attorney, both, or neither? What are your ethical obligations to the legal process? Further, review the scenario below and answer the following questions.
A client, John, telephones to inform you that he did not give a notice of an insurance claim within the time stipulated in his insurance policy, as a condition of insurance coverage. He seeks your advice, as the case litigation paralegal, about backdating a letter to the insurance carrier for his file so that he can claim that he had sent the letter on time.
Will you discuss this matter with the litigation partner with whom you work, or will you make an independent judgment? How involved is the paralegal in the litigation process during an entire case from inception through trial? Discuss the manner in which a litigation paralegal participates in the litigation process.
Justify your ideas and responses by using appropriate examples and references from Westlaw (including primary sources such as cases, statutes, rules, and regulations), government websites, and peer-reviewed legal periodicals (not lawyer blogs), which can be supplemented by law dictionaries or the textbook. This means you need to use more than just your text and legal dictionaries.
Discussion Question 2: Rules of Civil Procedure
Diversity of citizenship and long arm statutes are significant considerations in the litigation process. Both will be covered in the following question.
Are there any benefits to bringing a diversity of citizenship case in state court instead of a federal court? Discuss the differences between your local state court rules of civil procedure and the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP). Discuss the differences between case management under FRCP and your local state court rules of procedure. Please cite the rules you are discussing, appropriately. What issues were considered in International Shoe Co. v. Washington 326 U.S. 310 (1945)? Explain the constitutional implications of long-arm statutes.
Justify your ideas and responses by using appropriate examples and references from Westlaw (including primary sources such as cases, statutes, rules, and regulations), government websites, and peer-reviewed legal periodicals (not lawyer blogs), which can be supplemented by law dictionaries or the textbook. This means you need to use more than just your text and legal dictionaries.