Three days before I had my unexpected surgery, I took my first law school midterm. I thought I did okay on it, especially the essay portion which was the majority of the test. Seems I slightly over-estimated. I passed and did, in fact, do better than the mean score, but I was not happy with my grade. I’m still not. 

Seems that when one writes a law school essay response, one must include every single bit of information, no matter how obvious it seems. In my case, for example, I got nailed for not explaining how/why B. Obama is a public figure (this is important because in libel cases, if you are a public figure, the rules are different than if you are a regular person). I actually wrote “Obviously, Mr. Obama is a public figure…” Seems to me you’d have to be living under a rock not to know who Obama is, but no, I had to express it clearly. Poo.

I also got nailed for not explaining whether the publication in question was libelous, but again, I didn’t think I needed to since the instructions said to write a memo with suggestions for how to defend against the libel claim and once you show that the party in question is a public figure and that there was no “actual malice,” then it really doesn’t matter if it was libelous or not.

So now I know–explain everything like you are talking to someone with a good vocabulary who has been living under a rock for the past 50 years. And that’s what I’ll do on the final.

And then today, I got an email from the school which let me know that there was a first-day reading assignment. Okay, no big deal. I kinda figured that would be the case. The email tells me that I need to read an entire book before the first day and, because books are included in my scholarship, that I can pick up mine next week sometime. Curious, I looked up the book online. It’s a whimsical little pamphlet…of almost 300 pages! Called Reading Like a Lawyer, it weighs 1.2 pounds. That’s more than Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (paperback) weighed. Oy.

So, a week from Monday, that would be the 4th, I have my final for this summer course. Then on either my birthday or the day after, I have registration stuff and must pick up my books. The 21st is orientation, and classes start the 22nd. So much for enjoying any time off and/or finishing my own book that I’ve been writing. 

Im starting to wonder just what I have gotten myself into. Yikes!

Just a small update: I have a follow-up appointment tomorrow (Monday) to (hopefully) get some stitches removed and to see if there is any need for further surgery. Keep your fingers crossed.

I’m still walking a bit like a cowboy and sitting/getting up like a very pregnant woman, but overall I think things are getting better. I went to Trader Joe’s with Christopher yesterday, which was lovely just getting out of the house for a bit, but afterwards I was kind of sore and resorted to taking another Vicodin before bed. I’ve been trying to go without but when “ache” becomes “pain” I figure I should take the drugs. I suppose that’s what they mean by “Every 8 hours as needed for pain” on the prescription bottle.

I’m not sure I’ll make it to class tomorrow, but I’m hopeful to be at it soon. Thanks for all the good thoughts and emails.

So I just had my first law school midterm, sort of. It counts (unless one totally hoses it and does well on the final) and it was formatted like the tests I will be taking, but I’m sure it was a bit dumbed-down. Still, it had its challenges. 

Mostly was the fact that it consisted of only two multiple choice questions and a long essay question. Not much room for not knowing your stuff there. In my case (and at least one of my classmates said the same after), I had a different difficulty: one of the multiple choice questions seemed way too imprecise to be able to answer conclusively. I could easily have argued for two of the answers, maybe even a third if I wanted to break a sweat. But the weight of the questions makes the essay far more important so if I got one multiple choice wrong, I got it wrong, and it won’t kill me…

…unless I hosed the essay, but I think I did fine on it. Basically it was an imaginary situation where Soldier of Fortune magazine ran two ads that got them in trouble. One was anti-Obama (in a very cartoon-y way) and the other was a classified ad by a former Navy SEAL who offered to “take care of your personal problems, permanently,” for $15K and who was hired by a guy whose ex-wife was later killed, presumably by this guy. The mag was then being sued by Obama for libel and by the surviving children of the woman killed for wrongful death. We were asked to write a memo, as an assistant to the attorney for the magazine, with suggested arguments for the motions to dismiss (each case) and an analysis of our chances of getting dismissals.

I said we had a very strong chance for the libel to be dismissed, but the wrongful death was unlikely…and cited two cases we covered in class for each (NYTimes, v Sullivan and Hustler v Falwell for the libel/public person issue–though it’s mostly the first– and Brandenburg v Ohio and Rice et al. v Paladin Enterprises for the other). Wrote several pages, discussed what I thought the other side would offer for their arguments, etc., but did not fill the blue book and finished with plenty of time to spare. I wasn’t the first done, but I was one of the first and I was writing by hand, which had to make me slower than many of the computer-users (mine isn’t compatible…will be getting new Mac before Fall trimester is too far gone). Reminded me of when I took my Masters exams–hope I do as well!

I’m sure my answers were relatively laughable to anyone who has already been through law school. It’s amazing how little we know even though we as a society think we understand the law at least somewhat. But, considering how this class is formulated and what we’ve read so far, I think I did okay.

We’ll see. Now, I have to read and brief some right-to-die cases for class tomorrow.