Professor PattersonLaw Business & Society

Extra Credit Opportunity – Court Visit

Due Tuesday, Dec. 15, by 11:55 pm on NYU Classes through Turnitin.

You must visit a court and sit through at least 90 minutes of courtroom activity or watch Webcasts of full arguments in at least six cases in the New York Court of Appeals. You may go with one or more LBS classmates from this section or another LBS section. However, your written assignment must be prepared, written, and submitted on an individual basis. This is not a group extra credit assignment.

If you do not live in Manhattan (N.Y. County), you may pick a local court to visit convenient to where you live. Talk to me if you need help finding one. A list of courts in Manhattan with links to directions and other information is attached to this memorandum.

With the exception of the Second Circuit, Bankruptcy Court and the Appellate Division for the First Department, the daily calendar of cases is not posted online for any of the courts. Be aware that cases on the calendar may be adjourned at the last minute. For those courts where the calendar is not online, you must go to the courthouse and ask a security guard or a clerk what is going on in the various courtrooms. (This may test your marketing and presentation skills.)

Watching state court calendar calls or motion return days, while somewhat instructive as to the practicalities of litigation (and generally a subject of horrified fascination to lawyers who have never seen them), is probably not the best use of your time. You want arguments, hearings or trials. You should not go during the lunch time hours (usually 12 - 2pm) because there is a lunch adjournment. I suggest arriving at the courthouse soon after 9am or soon after 2pm. The court proceedings typically adjourn by 4:30 – 5pm. Fridays are usually not a good day to go to Federal District Court or Supreme Court, N.Y. County, as the judges may be conducting routine hearings or swearing in ceremonies in naturalization cases, bar admissions and the like.

On alternate Thursday nights, you can attend Small Claims part in NYC Civil Court. But before you go, check the web site to make sure the day has not changed. http://www.nycourts.gov/courts/nyc/housing/courtservicechanges.shtml

The security guards at all the courts will take your phones and laptops and return them to you when you leave. You will also go through a metal detector.

You have a right to attend court, except in certain family disputes where the courts protect the privacy of children, occasionally in commercial cases where trade secrets are discussed, or, rarely, where national security is involved. However, especially in Civil

Court, which can be less formal and has less space and infrequent visitors, a judge, clerk or lawyer may ask who you are. Explain that you are a Stern business student studying our legal system and this is one way you are learning about it. Some judges may be thrilled to hear that. Some lawyers and litigants, not so much.

Please remember that this is serious business and remain quiet at all times. Minimize going in and out of the courtroom. You will sit behind the “bar,” which is the short partition or railing that separates the judge, witnesses, jurors and counsel from observers. In the Appellate Division, First Department, you will sit on the side, in the benches perpendicular to the judges’ bench; the seats facing the bench are reserved for lawyers who are arguing that session.

As noted above, web sites for the various courts in Manhattan are listed at the end of these instructions. You can browse them for court locations and other details.

In order to receive possible extra credit on one written assignment (raising a B to a B+, for example) you must submit your paper by Tuesday, Dec. 15, by 11:55 p.m. Submit your paper through the Extra Credit Assignment under the Assignments tab. Your paper should be 2-3 pages (double spaces with 1 inch margins and 12 point font in Times New Roman) and should provide the following:

Your NameName of CourtDate and Time Attended (Names of Cases and Dates of Oral Argument for Webcasts)

Who was the presiding judge, or who was on the panel of judges? (If you cannot hear the name(s), you can state that.)

What you watched – three oral arguments, a hearing, part of a jury trial, etc.

Your personal impressions of and reflections on what you watched: Anything you noticed and found interesting or puzzling - no matter how small and insignificant it may seem – can be included. I want to read about your perceptions and reactions, not just a summary of what happened.

Questions to think about as you observe:

How does the judge behave? How do the litigants/their counsel behave? How does the jury, if there is a jury, behave?

How do the lawyers move/not move around the courtroom? How do the different players address each other? Do they make eye contact with the jury members (if any)? With the judge?

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If you heard testimony from witnesses, what was your impression of each witness and of the lawyers who questioned those individuals?

What was the legal issue, if any? Was it something you learned about in LBS? Was it an issue of substantive or procedural law?

How was an issue or conflict resolved - if it was resolved during the time that you observed the proceedings?

If a judge or jury made a decision, how might you have decided?

If you attended with students from one of my sections, note their names. It is interesting for me to read how your perceptions differed. Sometimes it is clear that you attended the same proceeding, and sometimes it is not!

Have fun!

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NY State Courts

Court of Appealshttps://www.nycourts.gov/ctapps/OA-Archives.htmUnless you want to go to Albany, you can watch Webcasts of arguments. You must watch at the arguments in at least six cases. Note that No. 82 on March 22, 2012, is the oral argument in Sullivan v. Harnisch, which we read for Employment Law.

Supreme Court, NY County, Civil Branch http://www.nycourts.gov/courts/1jd/supctmanh/,Court of general jurisdiction for civil cases.  It includes a special part (or section) for commercial cases, http://www.nycourts.gov/courts/comdiv/newyork.shtml

Supreme Court, NY County, Criminal Branch http://www.nycourts.gov/courts/1jd/criminal/  This court hears felony cases.

NY City Civil Court, NY County http://www.nycourts.gov/courts/nyc/civil/adminNewYorkCiv.shtml.  This court hears civil cases and has limited jurisdiction.  It includes Landlord/Tenant (both residential and commercial) and Small Claims Parts.

NYC Criminal Court http://www.nycourts.gov/courts/nyc/criminal/generalinfo.shtml#NEW_YORK_COUNTY.   It has jurisdiction over misdemeanors and conducts preliminary hearings and arraignments in felony cases.

Appellate Division, First Departmenthttp://www.courts.state.ny.us/courts/ad1/, and here is the calendar link, http://www.courts.state.ny.us/courts/ad1/calendar/index.shtml

This court takes appeals from the trial courts. You will hear only oral arguments, not witnesses, but you will hear something of substance. You should make sure you get there early, before oral arguments are scheduled to begin, so you can get a seat. It is bad manners to leave the courtroom while an argument is being heard; wait until the argument is finished, and the lawyers are returning from counsel table. (I don’t know why fewer students go to this courthouse rather than to the trial courts downtown. It is a beautiful building, it’s right next to Madison Square Park, which is lovely, and there are great places to eat in the area. And there are substantive arguments. But you will not see evidence being presented, which probably interests many of you.)

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Federal Courts:

Second Circuit Court of Appealshttp://www.ca2.uscourts.gov/visitor_information.html and http://www.ca2.uscourts.gov/clerk/calendars/calendars.html and http://ww2.ca2.uscourts.gov/calendar/

NOTE that it only sits in Manhattan on particular dates, http://www.ca2.uscourts.gov/clerk/calendars/term_sittings.html

You will only hear appellate arguments, no witnesses, but they usually will be on important cases and issues, with very capable counsel and a “hot bench” that is engaged and asks lots of questions.

District Court for the Southern District of New Yorkhttp ://www.nysd. uscourts.gov/

Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York http://www.nysb.uscourts.gov/ Here is the link to the judges’ calendars, http://www.nysb.uscourts.gov/calendars-0. (Also a great old building, in a very historic area of the city, and the same building houses the National Museum of the American Indian – N.Y. I grant you that the bankruptcy business isn’t booming these days, but business failures will never cease.)

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