Week 8 (April 6, 2015)

Hello! This was my 8th week on site!

On Tuesday, I spent a lot of time trying to fin other studies about social media and family law to incorporate into my Senior Research Project. Though there are many statistics and facts about social media in law, there are not many specifically about social media and family law.

Wednesday and Thursday were both pretty standard days at the office. I answered the phone and scanned lots of documents and sorted through closed files to pull out all the staples and take off all the sticky notes so that the file could be scanned and placed into storage. On a more exciting note, I drafted several preliminary divorce documents using the client's information and I believe there were about seven different ones that I filled out for my on-site mentor. I also helped a client pay a balence on her account over the phone (which was a new experience). All in all, it was a good week!

See you soon!

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Week 7 (March 30, 2015)

Hello! This was my seventh week at my internship! All is well. As mentioned in my earlier blog post, Mr. Levine was out of the office this week. Our paralegal was also gone for two out of the three days that I was there this week for a conference in China.

On Monday, both Mr. Levine and our paralegal were gone, so it was just my on-site mentor, her husband (who was recruited to help out), and me in the office. For a large portion of the day, I was on the computer and answering phone calls. The phones weren't too crazy, thankfully. My main purpose for being there was to help my on-site mentor as much as possible. I don't know how to do even half of what the paralegal does, but I knew enough to help with standard office stuff, like scanning papers and drafting subpoenas to be sent out (mostly for personal injury cases, but for family law cases as well).

On Tuesday, both Mr. Levine and our paralegal were gone again, but this time it was just me and my on-site mentor in the office until it was time for me to leave, at which time her husband arrived to help her answer phone calls. Again, most of my day was spent answering the phone and helping out with basic stuff. I did, however, get a change to view a lot of blogs of my fellow classmates and I was elated to see how well everyone's projects are turning out. I even made a major life decision based upon a quote that I found on my classmate's blog. Here's a link: http://dariabazzi.blogspot.com/
I also filed all the papers that had been piling up since our paralegal left. This process included sorting the files by client, then by date, and putting them in our folder of files to be put into the clients' binders. There were so many papers! But it was fun. I secretly love organizing (shh dont tell).

On Wednesday, Mr. Levine was still gone. However, our paralegal was back! Yay! She told me and my on-site mentor all about her trip to China, which was fascinating. In addition to this, my big project for the day was actually putting the filed papers into their respective binders based upon the client. Within these binders, there are tabs that are used to sort the client's paperwork. These tabs are labelled: client information, minute entries, letters, client's emails, husband's discovery. wife's discovery, exhibits, DPL notes, husband's pleading's, wife's pleadings, costs, etc... It took some guesswork and guidance but it took me literally all day. Minus conversation time. But hey, it was my first time doing that and I'm sure I'll be faster at it next time! :) I answered the phone all day as well, and ended up filling out some preliminary paperwork for a client over the phone, which was neat. Usually, the phone calls consist of people telling me that they want to speak to my on-site mentor about something, so this was an interesting change of pace.

See you next week!

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Week 6 (March 23, 2015)

Hello!

This was my 6th week at my internship! Unfortunately, it was also a sick week. Turns out that I caught a pretty bad cold and I lost my voice for three days! I am still recovering, but I am feeling a bit better now. I should be back at my internship next week. I only went to my internship on Tuesday this week, as I could not be of much help without my voice (because I answer the phones a lot, but especially so when the paralegal is gone like she is this week). As a result, this blog post will probably be boring, as my week was filled mostly with coughing, tissues, and SO much research. I began my search for known statistics regarding family law cases and I also began drafting the survey that my on-site mentor will share with other attorneys. This will provide somewhat of a broad spectrum for my research.

On Tuesday, I mostly helped the paralegal prepare for her week-long absence by scanning closed files, filing current paperwork, and answering the phone calls. I have scanned closed files before, but I was surprised by the size of one file in particular, which contained close to 2,000 pages of legal paperwork and exhibits. Needless to say, it took a long time to scan everything.

See you next week!

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Week 5 (March 16, 2015)

Hello! Last week was a busy week!

On Monday, I, yet again, arrived at the office only to be greeted by one of Mr. Levine's clients. Remember when I saw that deposition back in February? Let me refresh your memory:

"On Wednesday, I was greeted immediately by one of Mr. Levine's clients at the door. This client was there before me, as she needed to prepare for the deposition of her late daughter's ex-husband's new girlfriend. This deposition was regarding a grandparental visiting rights issue, as the father of her grandson had moved the both of them out of state, taking him away from her. Before they moved, the grandmother was able to see her daughter's son at least once a week. She would walk him to school and allowed him to seek counseling after his mother's death. The case involves the grandmother of the boy, the father of the boy, and the father's current girlfriend. As there were so many parties involved in this case, the conference room in which the deposition took place was overflowing with people. Along with Mr. Levine and his client (the grandmother), there was the girlfriend of the father and her lawyer (who brought an intern to observe), and there was the lawyer of the father (who didn't show up). In addition, the grandfather of the boy (our client's husband) and the videographer was present. With so many people and not enough room, I was placed in the doorway of Mr. Levine's office, able to watch and listen. I was more than happy to watch from the next room over, away from the cramped space of the conference room. The deposition lasted about three hours, during which there were three breaks taken to stretch legs and discuss questions. A deposition is basically a question-and-answer session in which the lawyer of a party in the case (in this case our client) asks another party some basic facts about the case and about their observations. This is then signed under oath and turned in as an addition to the facts of the case, as evidence. After the deposition, I worked on some of my research until it was time to leave. I am allowed to discuss cases (as I know it always seems so hush hush in the movies, and it is to some extent), as long as I do not mention any specific names. Anonymity is everything."

Anyway, I finally met the daughter's ex-husband! The conference room was not quite as crowded as last time, thankfully (which didn't really matter because I ended up sitting in the doorway again). Along with Mr. Levine and his client (and her husband), the court reporter, the videographer, the father, and his lawyer were all there, in that tiny little conference room. This time, the deposition lasted four hours and three minutes (not including breaks)! That's actually very impressive considering that Mr. Levine actually ran out of time (they allotted four hours for the deposition) before he was done asking all of his questions! It was not surprising that Mr. Levine ran out of time, as the father was evasive and hostile at times during the deposition. This behavior was pleasantly welcomed by Mr. Levine, as he was hoping to prove that the father has somewhat of an anger-management problem. The father's lawyer had to calm him down during the first break, as he was yelling for a good portion of the first hour. After this talk with his lawyer, however, his tone became simply passive-aggressive and condescending. Well, mission accomplished! Needless to say, after the deposition, I was starving! I stayed a bit late that day to eat my lunch before the drive to pick up my brother and sister from school.

On Tuesday, I finished going through the 900 cases that I found involving social media. Unfortunately, I did not find as much data as I had hoped; however I did find some good examples of social media evidence influencing the outcome of a case. I noticed a trend -- a great deal of the cases influenced by social media evidence involve children, whether it's a matter of child custody or child support. This ultimately makes sense, as posting on Facebook can reveal things such as secret business ventures or hostility toward a spouse. In some cases the Facebook evidence is more serious, such as a parent posting inappropriate images of their child, or pictures of a parent showing the deviation from medical advice in a manner that impacts their mental health, and therefore the safety of the child. More on that later.

On Wednesday, I sifted through several of Mr. Levine's old cases that he dug up for me. There is one in particular that peaked my interest, which involved a fake Myspace account and child custody issues. The fact that this case is from nine years ago highlights the fact that although social media evidence is becoming more and more prevalent in recent years, there were still cases that involved vital evidence from social media back in 2006. The evidence involves a mother planning to go to Europe for eight weeks with her internet "lover" (who was really the father's new wife pretending to be some guy who was interested in the mother). In the process of planning this trip with her "lover", who she barely knew, she claimed that it would be okay to leave her son at home with his father. This proved problematic for the mother because guess what? You've been planning to run away to Europe with your ex-husband's new wife, surprise! It sounds like something right out of a movie, I know, but it just shows how easy it is for someone to utilize social media for the purpose of gathering evidence for a legal case. Believe me, there's more to that story though, the trip to Europe is just the tip of the iceberg! More on that later. I need to save some good stuff for my presentation, right?

P.S. The paralegal at the law firm will be leaving on Wednesday, March 25th for about a week, so it will just be me, my on-site mentor, and Mr. Levine on Wednesday (March 25th) and Thursday (March 26th). I will be answering the phone a lot while she's gone, it may get hectic. Looking forward to it!

See you soon!
Megan



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Week 4 (March 2, 2015)

Hello! This was my fourth week at my internship!

On Monday, I wrote up six more affidavits (finally finishing the whole batch of 23). Though the affidavits were somewhat exhausting, it was actually really nice to get so connected to a case. I feel as if I know the client very well, despite the fact that I have only met him/her one time. Most of the letters that I was transforming into affidavits were character references from family friends, coworkers, counselors, etc. It was a very worthwhile experience. As I am new to drafting these legal documents, these six affidavits took occupied my time for most of the day. For the remainder of the day, I helped mostly with organizational tasks: hole-punching the documents to be filed and scanning some paperwork.


On Tuesday, I stayed a little bit longer than I usually do. I had been working on a very specific task and I wanted to finish it before I left. I helped the paralegal with subpoenas for medical records. Sometimes, my on-site mentor works on personal injury cases and, in this case, we asked several different facilities for medical records and billing information. I used the typewriter (which was exciting because I've never used one before) to type parts of the letters being sent out to the medical facilities in question. I used the online stamping program to print out the addresses on the envelopes and I packed the letters into the envelopes so they would be ready to send out in the morning. In addition to this, the paralegal walked me through the e-filing system and taught me how to file important documents online. It was nice to get a feel for the system. The documents that we filed were intended to be sent out to a commissioner (in place of what would usually be a judge), so we also packaged the documents up to be sent to him/her directly for approval. It was a good day; I always love when I get to shadow our paralegal. She's very helpful and smart. And most importantly, she does not mind (or at least she does not seem to mind) when I ask questions.

Side note: my day ended with free pancakes so that was pretty exciting.

On Wednesday, I did a lot of work perfecting my abstract for the Senior Research Project. I decided to pull up the template and color-code each individual sentence to the topic/section being discussed. I then sent my abstract to my faculty advisor and my on-site mentor for advice and approval. All turned out well. Once I sent my final copy to Dr. Duffy (who works very hard to ensure that everything we present for the Senior Research Project is, well, presentable) and Ms. Mitrovich (our college counselor who guides not only me but also my classmates through the SRP process), I was eager to work more on my research. My on-site mentor had mentioned to me an ethics packet from 2013 that she remembered very specifically. This packet contained, from what she remembered, several ethical guidelines regarding social media and technology. I plan on incorporating these ethical rules within my presentation. It was very exciting to discover actual rules about social media. As far as I knew, the rules mainly applied to attorneys themselves; but in reality, one of the most important rules pertains to something that clients cannot do without breaking the law. I do not want to spoil too much, so more on that later. At this point in time, I have discovered ethical rules regarding social media along with a case (one of Mr. Levine's) that shows what can happen when a party in a legal case carelessly posts on Facebook. I will soon be drafting a survey to pass out to family law attorneys (with some networking help from my on-site mentor). All is going well.

See you soon!

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Week 2 (February 16, 2015)

Hello! This is a revision to my original post for my second week which addresses some of the comments that people have left. My second week on site was amazing! I am so grateful for all of the opportunities that I have been given to watch and learn.

On Tuesday, I learned how to answer the phone. "Thank you for calling the Levine Law office, this is Megan, how can I help you," was my line. Sometimes I take messages for Mr. Levine or my on-site mentor and other times I just transfer the call over to them. Along with this, I also learned more about the filing system and how they keep track of documents and clients at the firm. I worked on some of my research during my free time. I have found that many of the cases do not involve social media being used as evidence, but being an instigator to a disagreement. A lot of the time, it is mentioned in the cases that a parent got upset with the other parent due to their children's posts on social media, whether it is pictures posted on Myspace or written posts on Facebook. However, there are some cases that I have found which involve social media as evidence, which is exactly what I'm looking for. I just have to weed out the ones which fall under family law. More on that later.

On Wednesday, I was greeted immediately by one of Mr. Levine's clients at the door. This client was there before me, as she needed to prepare for the deposition of her late daughter's ex-husband's new girlfriend. This deposition was regarding a grandparental visiting rights issue, as the father of her grandson had moved the both of them out of state, taking him away from her. Before they moved, the grandmother was able to see her daughter's son at least once a week. She would walk him to school and allowed him to seek counseling after his mother's death. The case involves the grandmother of the boy, the father of the boy, and the father's current girlfriend. As there were so many parties involved in this case, the conference room in which the deposition took place was overflowing with people. Along with Mr. Levine and his client (the grandmother), there was the girlfriend of the father and her lawyer (who brought an intern to observe), and there was the lawyer of the father (who didn't show up). In addition, the grandfather of the boy (our client's husband) and the videographer was present. With so many people and not enough room, I was placed in the doorway of Mr. Levine's office, able to watch and listen. I was more than happy to watch from the next room over, away from the cramped space of the conference room. The deposition lasted about three hours, during which there were three breaks taken to stretch legs and discuss questions. A deposition is basically a question-and-answer session in which the lawyer of a party in the case (in this case our client) asks another party some basic facts about the case and about their observations. This is then signed under oath and turned in as an addition to the facts of the case, as evidence. After the deposition, I worked on some of my research until it was time to leave. I am allowed to discuss cases (as I know it always seems so hush hush in the movies, and it is to some extent), as long as I do not mention any specific names. Anonymity is everything.

On Thursday, I worked a lot on my blog posts for this week and I was able to comment on some of the other blogs that my classmates have been publishing. It was really great to reconnect to everyone and see what people are up to. It was also a nice reminder that we're all in this together, emerging into the professional realm. I was very eager to see that so many people are enjoying their time in the "real world." I also filed some paperwork and answered the phone some more while I was there. In addition to the paperwork, I read some more cases in my search for ones which involve social media and family law. I think I'm going to come across a lot of good ones soon, as there are several in a row that involve divorce cases that mention some sort of social media, whether it's Facebook or Myspace or Twitter.

Next week, Mr. Levine will be out of town, so it will just be me, my on-site mentor, and our paralegal at the office. It might be hectic (because his clients will be calling us a lot), it might be slow (because there will be less meetings probably), but it will be different, and I'm excited to help out in any way they might need me.

See you soon!

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Week 3 (February 23, 2015)

Hello! This was my third week on site and I continue to learn new things every day! Though Mr. Levine was out of town for the week, my on-site mentor and the paralegal at the firm both taught me about day-to-day operations of the office and about legal documentation.

On Tuesday, I wrote my first affidavit ever. For those of you who don't know, an affidavit is a legal document summarizing, in this case, the contents of letters speaking about the character of one of Mr. Levine's clients. It is very exciting to draft legal documents! A lot of it is just stating facts (affiant's name, address, phone number, relation to client, etc.); however the rest of the document contains eye-witness accounts and things that the affiant has observed or heard regarding the client in relation to the matter of the case. I also answered the phone a lot!

Normally, I would have a more lengthy entry for Wednesday; however, when coming home from the internship on the 202 on Tuesday, tragedy struck when a nail ripped right through my tire and I had to use a spare until Discount Tire could retrieve new tires for me on Wednesday. Long story short, I stayed home on Wednesday (other than my short trip to Discount Tire) and I did some more research for the Senior Research Project. The amount of cases that I still have to work through (after sifting through about one fourth of the 900 cases I've found involving social media) is extensive. However, I am confident that I will have it done in the next couple of weeks and then I will move on to the surveying portion of my research. Along with these cases, Mr. Levine has also provided me with a case involving social media being used as evidence. He will redact any personal information shown in the case so that I can use it as an example for my presentation.

On Thursday, I spent the whole day working on two things: my first task was to work on as many affidavits that I could before our paralegal needed her computer back (as the one I use was abducted for billing purposes for the day), and my second was to scan large piles of documents into the system using the copy machine. About 700 pages later, the day was over and it was time for me to leave.

Though I do not usually work on Mondays, I will be working this upcoming Monday due to the fact that I wasn't able to come in on Tuesday.

See you soon!

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