SEE COURSE DESCRIPTION
Professors:
Linda Fisher (Fall 2009), (973) 642-8393
Visitor (Spring 2010)
Emily Goldberg (Fall 2009), (973) 642-8719
Shavar Jeffries (Spring 2010)
Clinical Teaching Fellow: Leena Khandwala
Offered: Fall and spring semesters. Credits: 5
Introduction
The Civil Litigation Clinic handles a variety of civil cases on behalf of its clients, with a primary focus on plaintiffs' consumer-related matters. The Clinic also actively handles civil rights, prisoners’ rights, housing, and education cases. During the course of a semester, students may handle all aspects of civil cases, from conducting an initial interview to trying a case or arguing a motion. Students draft complaints, answers and counterclaims; propound and respond to interrogatories and document requests; conduct and defend depositions; draft motions and memoranda of law; conduct settlement negotiations; appear in federal and state court; and represent clients in full arbitration hearings.
The Civil Litigation Clinic has two complementary portions: a two-hour, one credit, weekly seminar focusing on procedural, evidentiary and ethical rules, as well as skills training; and a four-credit clinical component in which students work on real cases for real clients.
Clinical Law Practice
Students in the Civil Litigation Clinic have interviewed and counseled clients, conducted trials and hearings, drafted pleadings and briefs, argued discovery and dispositive motions in court, engaged in settlement negotiations, and participated in mediation and arbitration. They have also assisted with legal training sessions for non-lawyers and may assist with consumer-related legislative work.
Recent representative cases in the Civil Litigation Clinic are described below:
Professor Linda Fisher's section of the clinic represents families in foreclosure who have been victimized by foreclosure rescue scams. Desperate homeowners were defrauded of title to their longtime homes by third-parties who claimed they could save the home by temporarily taking title and renting the homes back to the families. The scammers then stopped paying the mortgages, causing lenders to foreclose. Proceeding under consumer fraud and federal lending statutes, the clinic intervenes in the foreclosures, asserts defenses against the banks, and sues the scammers in third-party claims.
Professor Fisher’s clinic students represent a group of Newark homeowners who were defrauded by a predatory property-flipping and lending scheme. The clients unwittingly purchased properties that were worth significantly less than the stated value and obtained mortgages with onerous repayment terms. The complaints allege violations of the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act, federal fair housing law and various common-law claims. Discovery and settlement negotiations should be taking place over the course of the next year.
Under the direction of Professors Shavar Jeffries and Scott Michelman, clinic students filed a class action lawsuit in federal court on behalf of all parents of children attending Newark Public Schools who are being denied their rights under the No Child Left Behind Act to free tutoring and to transfer out of a failing school. The lawsuit seeks an injunction that would force Newark Public Schools to comply with its obligations under the Act.
Clinic students under the direction of Professor Shavar Jeffries brought a suit on behalf of a parent against her child’s school district and education officials after the school banned the involved parent from the problem-riddled elementary school after she advocated for positive change. The clinic seeks to establish a precedent that will make it more difficult for school officials to ignore the rights and opinions of parents regarding their children’s education. Clinic students have drafted and responded to discovery requests, drafted motions to compel, taken depositions, and drafted briefs supporting plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment and opposing defendants’ cross-motion.
Under the supervision of Professor Linda Fisher, clinic students frequently litigate fair housing cases alleging racially discriminatory refusals to rent or sell homes to African-Americans; or to tenants with children.
Clinic students have conducted full arbitration hearings on behalf of consumers defrauded by various businesses.
Under the supervision of Visiting Professor Emily Goldberg, clinic students are currently investigating unconstitutional conditions of confinement at a New Jersey jail. To that end, students have conducted numerous interviews with inmates and have drafted a complaint that will be filed in federal court once the investigation is complete.
The Seminar
The seminar is expressly devoted to learning the rules governing the process of litigation, from pleadings to post-trial motions. There is a particular emphasis on developing case theory, the strategic implications of procedural rules and their interaction with rules of evidence, substantive rules of law, and the Code of Professional Responsibility. Another component of the seminar is devoted to instruction in actual trial skills, and a substantial portion of the seminar grade is based on preparation for and performance during mock trial simulations. In addition to the seminar, students participate in weekly team meetings concerning the cases for which they are responsible.
The overall goal of both the seminar and clinical portion of the course is to improve writing, communication, negotiation and analytical skills that are critical to effective lawyering; to appreciate the importance of fact development and presentation; to become consistently self-conscious and self-critical about strategic decisions taken throughout the course of the litigation; and to contribute to a sense of responsibility about the capacity of the law and legal institutions to do justice.