Assignment Question
This will be a 4-5 page paper reporting on an interview you conduct with one of the following people (finding a person to interview is PART of the assignment – think of it as the research component): A person who has been involved in a civil case or dispute, OR A person who has been involved in a criminal case This assignment relates to the third theme of the class, the impact of the U.S. legal system on individuals. So the goal is to explore how this person’s experience with the legal system impacted them. The person you interview should NOT be a lawyer. Interviews in person are absolutely the best approach. Phone is an acceptable alternative, but interviews by email really do not work. (Follow-ups by email, however, are often very useful.) You can also keep the person’s real name confidential if that makes them more willing to talk with you. The report should NOT simply be a transcription of your interview. The best reports tend to focus on a few related areas of inquiry in your interview that you feel have generated the most interesting responses. You might even spend the entire paper analyzing your subject’s response to one particular question. The goal is analysis rather than mere description of what happened. The analysis comes into the paper when you connect their story to some of the concepts and ideas we have talked about in class. For example, you might discuss how or why the person did or didn’t move up the disputing pyramid, or their experience of the plea-bargaining process. It’s up to you to decide which ideas and concepts from the class that you want to discuss – but making that explicit connection to themes from the class is critical to a successful report. If you feel that your interviewee didn’t have much interesting to say, find another person to interview! Boring subjects make for dull case studies (and lower grades), so look around until you find something interesting. You are also free to interview other people involved in the particular case, or in other cases, to get a range of views on the issues you are most interested in. Your job is to use your interview(s) to write an interesting and engaging paper that teaches the reader something about the impact of the U.S. legal system on individuals. Person Involved in a Civil Legal Dispute Your interviewee can be the Plaintiff, the person who brought the lawsuit, or the Defendant, the person sued. In your report briefly tell the story of your subject’s experiences with the lawsuit. It is not necessary to choose a dispute that went to trial or was decided by a court. Most cases are settled out of court; those are perfectly acceptable for your purposes. The case can also be ongoing, but you might not get as helpful a perspective if the person is still involved in it. The best way to find an individual who was a party to a legal dispute is to ask your family, friends, people you know at Mercer, other faculty or staff, and people you have worked with if they know of anyone who has been involved in a legal dispute. You can use a lawyer contact to find out about a case or put you in touch with their client, but do NOT interview the lawyer. You can also check news sources like the local paper and try to follow up on stories about lawsuits reported there. The individuals might be businesspersons, government officials, or simply ordinary people who have been sued or brought a legal claim.
Here are examples of some questions you might ask: Decision to Sue / Reaction to Lawsuit: Ask them what influenced their decision to move up the “dispute pyramid” (naming, blaming, claiming) to the stage of filing a lawsuit. How did they find out they were being sued? What was their reaction? Did they hire a lawyer? How did they find one? Think in terms of the disputing pyramid and naming, blaming and claiming stages, but don’t just identify the stage. Include your analysis of the factors that affect whether a case progresses further in the system or not. Time, Money, Emotional Impact: Ask your interviewee to summarize the chronology and steps in the controversy, including their understanding of the legal issues and their feelings and reactions to what happened at each stage. How much did it cost? How long did it take? Was it disruptive in their lives and if so, in what ways? Again, do not simply describe, but connect their experience to broader themes about adversarial legalism and its impact. Satisfaction with Outcome / Suggestions for Reform: What is their perspective now, looking back on the lawsuit? Were they satisfied with the outcome? Do they think the result was a true positive/negative or a false positive/negative? If they had it to do over, what would they do differently? Are there any changes in the legal system they would recommend based on their experiences? Are there any reforms that you can discuss in your paper based on your knowledge of the choices in goals and values we make in structuring our legal system? Person Involved in a Criminal Case.
Your interviewee can be a victim of a crime or a defendant charged with a crime. In your report briefly tell the story of your subject’s experiences with the case. It is not necessary to choose a criminal case that went to trial or was decided by a court, because most cases are dropped or plea-bargained out. The best way to find an individual who was involved in a criminal case is to ask your family, friends, people you know at Mercer, other faculty or staff, and people you have worked with if they know of anyone who has been involved in a criminal case. You can use a lawyer contact to find out about a case or put you in touch with their client, but do NOT interview the lawyer. You can also check the local paper and try to follow up on stories about crimes reported there. You might be surprised how many ordinary people have been victims of or accused of a crime.
Here are examples of some questions you might ask: Decision to Report Crime/ Reaction to Charge: For victims, ask them what influenced their decision to report the crime? How involved were they in the investigation and prosecution? For Defendants, how did they find out they were being charged with a crime? What was their reaction? Did they hire a lawyer? How did they find one? Do not simply describe their experience, but also connect it to broader patterns and themes in the criminal justice system. Time, Money, Emotional Impact: Ask your interviewee to summarize the chronology and steps in the criminal case, including their understanding of the legal issues and their feelings and reactions to what happened at each stage. How much did it cost? How long did it take? Was it disruptive in their lives and if so, in what ways? In your analysis you can tackle questions like why the system costs what it does or takes as long as it does, and what trade-offs that reflects. Satisfaction with Outcome / Suggestions for Reform: What is their perspective now, looking back on the case? Were they satisfied with the outcome? If they had it to do over, what would they do differently? Are there any changes in the legal system they would recommend based on their experiences? Are there any reforms of that you would recommend based on your knowledge of the choices in goals and values we made in structuring our legal system?