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| Computer Assisted Litigation 2006 Mid-Term Exam #2 |
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| Sunday, 03 December 2006 | |
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PACIFIC McGEORGE SCHOOL OF LAW 1. This is a 2-hour examination (120 minutes). Write your STUDENT ID NUMBER: on this Mid-Term Exam, on the covers of your Exam Books, or, if you are typing your exam answers on your laptop, make sure your exam number is contained on the top sheet of your exam answer document. 2. Part One of this Mid-Term consists of FIVE (5) SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS, Part Two consists of TWO (2) ESSAY QUESTIONS. You should spend about THIRTY (30) minutes on the short answer question section and about NINETY (90) minutes (1 hour & 30 minutes) on the essay questions. Note that there is an extra 15 minutes built into the exam for reading the exam and outlining your answers. Be sure to KEEP AND BUDGET YOUR TIME. 3. You have an average of six (6) minutes per question for the short answer portion. You may be able to answer some questions in as little as 20 seconds, but others may take several minutes to answer (so use your judgment). None of the short answer questions requires much more than a few paragraphs of explanation. 4. For Part Two of the Exam, you will be shown a computer animation and other information in class. It will be shown repeatedly. It will be the subject of the essay question. 5. This is an OPEN book, OPEN note exam, so you may consult, the Quinlan v. Kane case file, the Supplemental Reading Materials, and your notes/computer. 6. If you type your exam answers, make sure to use Word and then copy it to a CD and/or e-mail it to “ This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it ” and put your student ID number in your answer. If you hand write your answers in a bluebook, please write on only one side of each page of the bluebook and only on every other line. Please use ink, not pencil. 7. You may not take the examination itself away (TURN IT IN ALONG WITH YOUR ANSWERS). Answers are invalid if the examination itself is not turned in with your answer. Please turn in: (1) The Mid-Term questions (this packet), and either (2) your bluebooks with your handwritten answers, or (3) your answer on disc or e-mailed so my secretary, Wendy Owens, can print it out. - DO NOT BEGIN UNTIL YOU ARE INSTRUCTED TO DO SO - PART ONE OF TWO PARTS (Short answer questions; Answer in test booklets) 1. What advantages does Sanction have over PowerPoint for a lawyer conducting a direct or cross-examination of a witness? 2. Write a short transcript (attorney questions and witness answers) of how an attorney would submit an exhibit in evidence – use Exhibit #1 – the telephone message note showing that Roberta Quinlan called Brian Kane on 6/24 taken by “Peg” Margaret Edmonson, his secretary (p. 25). Also describe how you would/should use Sanction to help you examine that witness (direct or cross) about the phone message. 3. Write a short transcript (attorney questions and witness answers) showing how an attorney would impeach a witness with a prior inconsistent statement. For example, assume Arthur Jackson says he never paid George Avery $5,000 but you have a copy of the $5,000 check and deposition testimony of Arthur Jackson saying he paid Avery $5,000. Describe how you would/should use Sanction to help you cross-examine that witness. 4. What are the possible disadvantages of using technology at trial? 5. What are the advantages/disadvantages of allowing live remote testimony via a camera so that a witness can testify from a location outside of the trial courtroom? - CONTINUE PART TWO OF THE EXAM - PART TWO OF TWO PARTS (Essay Question One) Assume your client is the driver of the black vehicle (defendant) that collides with the driver of the yellow vehicle (plaintiff) at the intersection depicted in the animation. [See animation playing in classroom] The plaintiff was severely injured as a result of the accident and so now the plaintiff has filed a negligence lawsuit against the defendant driver of the black vehicle (your client). Plaintiff’s theory of the case is that your client was negligent in running the stop sign. Your client tells you that it was actually the plaintiff who ran the stop sign and is now using the animation to switch the roads the parties were traveling on (he says plaintiff was actually traveling on the road with the stop sign and defendant was traveling the other way on the road without the stop sign). Your client is willing to stipulate that the front of the vehicles were damaged in the accident. At trial, you learn that plaintiff’s counsel intends to show this entire computer animation of the accident during their expert witness’ testimony in order to explain to the jury exactly how the accident happened. The plaintiff’s expert witness is an accident reconstruction expert duly qualified. You ask for a one-day recess and learn the following information: (1) There was no eyewitness to the accident. The expert will be using the animation to help explain his theory of what happened according to his expert opinion. (2) The expert is using a computer program that allows one to input various crash site measurements on the vehicles (there were no skid marks) and then the program calculates speed and movement using the scientific laws of Physics to generate an image of what must have happened given the input information and the expert’s opinion using his accident reconstruction expertise. (3) Weather records reveal that it had snowed 2 inches just 1 hour before the accident occurred. (4) Your expert’s theory of the case is that plaintiff was speeding and ran the stop sign (5) The plaintiff’s expert admits that he is just approximating how fast the vehicles were going according to the damage to the vehicles (6) The expert witness is unfamiliar with how the computer program generates the actual computer images but says he has relied on the program before in rendering expert opinions (7) Plaintiff’s counsel wants to play the animation first one time through and then have the witness go back and explain it frame by frame (8) Your expert says it is impossible to know the stop sign fell over. (A) You want to exclude the animation. What specific evidentiary objections can you make regarding the use of the animation during the expert’s testimony and how would a judge likely rule? - CONTINUE PART TWO OF THE EXAM - (B) Assume that plaintiff’s counsel now says there was actually an eyewitness to the accident that has just been located and plaintiff’s counsel wants to play the animation and then have the witness testify that the entire animation is a fair and accurate representation of what that witness saw. Again, you want to exclude the animation in whole or at least in part. What specific evidentiary objections can you make regarding the use of the animation during the eyewitness’ testimony and how would a judge likely rule? (C) Plaintiff’s counsel then proposes to add skidding sounds and crashing metal sounds that will be verified by the eyewitness who actually heard the crash sounds and skidding in addition to seeing the accident. The witness is willing to state that these sounds are a fair and accurate representation of what the accident actually sounded like. You want to exclude those sound effects in the animation, even if the animation is used. What specific evidentiary objections can you make regarding the use of the sounds in the animation during the eyewitness’ testimony and how would a judge likely rule? (Essay Question One) Look at the PowerPoint presentation. There are two slides. The attorney for defendant Brian Kane proposes to use the first slide in her closing argument. The attorney for plaintiff Roberta Quinlan proposes to use the second in her closing argument. Both attorneys know that you are familiar with litigation technology. If you were to give them advice on the effectiveness of their slides for their respective closing arguments, what would you tell them? How might their presentations be improved, if at all? What works and what does not? -END OF THE EXAM - |
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