Initial Interview 1

The first interview with a client is very important. A lawyer has to appear professional, reliable and communicative. It’s often not possible to prepare for the interview as you hardly know the details of the case. But what lawyers should have at hand is a client care letter – a type of agreement between the lawyer or law firm and the client – where the services, terms and conditions, fees and other details are set forth.

The following concerns a short preliminary interview:

Step 1: Ice-breaking

Step 2: Preliminary problem identification

Step 3: Documents exchange (client care letter and client’s papers)

Step 4: Arrange the following interview

Greetings / Small talk	Polite request / Offer	Confirming understanding / Response
Hello, Mr./Mrs./Ms./ …….. I’m …….. This way, please. I’m going to counsel you on your matter. I’m assigned to counsel you. Will you take a seat, please? Would you like a cup of tea/coffee /anything refreshing? Can I ask you how you got the information about our firm? Did it take you long to get here? Maybe we’ll get down to business? Let’s get down to business.	Could you tell me about your problem? Could you explain that to me, please? Will you please (pass me the paper, show me the document, repeat that to me? Would you mind repeating that to me? Would you mind answering a few questions? I’d like you to have a look at …. I’d like to know more…. Do you think you could …. ? Shall I …. ? Would you like me to ….?	I see. It’s clear. It’s quite clear. Now I understand. I see what you mean. All right. O’K. Sure. Of course. Quite so. Absolutely. Naturally. Great. Fine.

Interjections (plain English use)

Aha! Ah! Oh! Oh? Hmm-hm. Eh …. Well…. Huh? Uh-huh.

Role Play Task

1.

Student A. You are Chris Reynolds, an associate of Gibbs& Timberly law firm. The senior partner assigned you to interview a new client, Mr/Ms Stone. You’ve prepared a client care letter which the cleint is supposed to sign. After a brief interview you’ll agree to meet in a couple of days (decide when). You will send the client care letter by e-mail later. (Mind the manners. Don’t forget to be considerate and polite.)

Student B. You’re Fred/ Frederica Stone. You’ve arranged to meet with a lawyer of the firm. You’ve brought a claim to sue your boss – discrimination on the working place (he refused to promote you twice but promotes men employees). You seek a professional legal assistance. You’ve read about the firm in Internet. You don’t know how to file a claim and what other documents to prepare as evidence. You’ve never heard about such thing as “client care letter”. You are ready to meet with the lawyer as soon as possible.

Student C. You’re Alice/Alex Danton. You’ve arranged to meet with a lawyer of the firm. You’ve brought a claim to sue a truck driver who damaged your car. You seek a professional legal assistance. You’ve read about the firm in Internet. You don’t know how to file a claim and what other documents to prepare as evidence. You are ready to meet with the lawyer as soon as possible.

Crimes

Crime is an act or omission of act that is committed in violation of public law. It is considered an offense against society. Those who commit crimes are either fined or imprisoned.

When a society and its government decide that certain conduct is dangerous to citizens, or damaging to the society as a whole, such conduct is called a "crime" and is made punishable by sanctions such as fines and imprisonment. Most crimes are identified in statutes that have been enacted by any government legislatures, for example, criminal codes or special acts.

Criminal statutes establish the limits of social conduct and define unlawful actions beyond these limits, specify the elements of crime that are necessary to prove, classify the offences and set up the punishment.

The criminal procedure involves the entire criminal process itself - from investigation and arrest, to conviction and sentencing - and the people who play a role in that process: the accused, police officers, prosecuting attorneys, criminal defense attorneys, judges, jurors, witnesses, probation officers, and corrections officers.

Classification of crime

How are crimes classified?

Firstly, these are three major categories.

The degree of seriousness of a crime determines its category and thus appropriate punishment is imposed. Felony is the most serious crime, then come misdemeanors, and finally petty offenses.

Crimes commonly considered to be felonies include, but are not limited to: aggravated assault and/or battery, arson, burglary, embezzlement, grand theft, treason, espionage, racketeering, robbery, murder, rape, kidnapping and fraud. Felonies are classified into a number of degrees and each degree crime is subject to a certain imprisonment term from life imprisonment (or death penalty) to 1 – 5 term.

Misdemeanor

Misdemeanors fall in the middle of criminal offenses - less serious than felonies, but more serious than infractions. Like felonies, misdemeanors are often classified by severity of offense, including gross (high) misdemeanors, normal misdemeanors and petty misdemeanors.

Examples of Misdemeanor crimes: petty theft, disorderly conduct, prostitution, vandalism

Punishment can be 5 days - 1 year in jail, or community service, or probation, or fines

Petty Offense: A subset of misdemeanor, comprised of the least serious criminal offenses, such as traffic violations and jaywalking. Possible minor jail time.

Exercise 7

NAME THE CRIME

The box below gives names of 22 crimes. The list gives the definitions of these crimes. Match the crimes to their definitions.

arson assassination assault bigamy blackmail bribery burglary embezzlement espionage extortion forgery fraud libel manslaughter murder perjury piracy robbery slander smuggling theft treason

1.		acting in such a way as to make someone believe he or she will be hurt
2.		betraying your country to a foreign power
3.		copying patented inventions or copyrighted works
4.		entering a building illegally and stealing things
5.		getting money from people by threatening to publicise facts they do not want revealed
6.		getting money from people by using threats
7.		getting property or money from people by making them believe untrue things
8.		going through a ceremony of marriage when you are still married to someone else
9.		killing a public figure illegally and intentionally
10.		killing someone illegally and intentionally
11.		killing someone unintentionally or in mitigating circumstances
12.		making an illegal copy of a banknote or document
13.		offering money corruptly to get someone to do something to help you
14.		saying something which damages someone’s image
15.		setting fire to a building
16.		stealing something by using force or threatening to use force
17.		stealing, taking property which belongs to someone else
18.		taking goods illegally into or out of a country
19.		telling lies when you have sworn an oath to say what is true in court
20.		trying to find out secrets by illegal means
21.		using illegally or stealing money which you are looking after for someone else
22.		writing, publishing or broadcasting a statement which damages someone’s personality

Exercise 8

CATEGORIES

In the table there are 22 crimes or offences and seven categories of such offences. Decide which category each offence belongs to. The first one has been done for you.

	Crimes against a person	Crimes against property	Sexual offences	Political offences	Offences against justice	Public order offences	Road traffic offences
burglary
reckless driving
Obscenity нарушение общественного порядка, ругательства
murder
theft
rape
treason
nuisance
manslaughter
criminal damage
hijacking
kidnapping
terrorism
perjury
robbery
assault
blackmail
grievous bodily harm тяжкие телесные повреждения
forgery
battery
conspiracy
criminal contempt оскорбление суда

Exercise 9

A day in the life of a Magistrate

previous conviction – предыдущий приговор

enter a plea of guilty – объявить (в суде) о признании виновной

adjourn a case – отложить, перенести (слушание) дело

search warrant – ордер на обыск

As court starts at 10 am I like to get there about 9.30am – this gives me a chance to look through the lists to make sure none of the defendants' names are familiar.

I chair the court with two magistrates - a man, aged 32, who works in recruitment and was appointed about ten months ago, and a 54-year-old woman who works for a well-known airline.

Before going into court we have a brief chat with our legal adviser who confirms the majority of the court business.

As always, we go into court promptly at 10am; on our appearance in court everyone stands. It is a clear sign that chatting is over and it is time for business.

The first case is a 45-year-old defendant who’s pleaded guilty to driving with excess alcohol. The defendant had no previous convictions or points on his driving license. We disqualify the driver for 12 months and fine him £250.

The second case is a woman charged with shoplifting. She too enters a plea of guilty. However, she has a very long list of previous convictions and she already has been charged with another two shoplifting offences. She has to appear in court again in two weeks time to be sentenced. We decide to adjourn the case because then it will be better to consider all the charges together.

The third case involves two 19-year-old men, charged with assaulting the landlord of the pub where they had been drinking the previous night. It turns out that not all evidence has been collected. So we have to decide whether or not to grant bail.

Everyone has a right to bail, and we have to listen carefully to the arguments put by the prosecution and defense. After hearing evidence from the prosecution and defense, and consulting amongst ourselves, we grant conditional bail.

After quick lunch we are back in court.

We are asked to hear an application for a search warrant by a police officer. The police officer relays the information, source and reasons why a warrant is needed. They wish to search a property where it is believed there were stolen goods. We grant the search warrant and I sign the relevant papers.

Then we prepare to hear the case of burglary committed by a 38-year old man. The case appears to be rather violent. We decide to transfer the case to Crown Court.

We also hear two cases that both concern small traffic accidents. Both decisions are fines.

As no more case hearings are scheduled we are free at about 4 p.m.

Tasks

(1)Write down the underlined phrases in a column; Make a brief summary of the Magistrate’s activity on this day.

(2) Fill out the following chart that is related to the Magistrate’s cases.

	1	2	3	4	5
Defendant	45-y old man				2 drivers
Crime	Driving under intoxication DUI
Guilty plea	Yes
Evidence	Yes	Yes + previous convictions, two shoplifting offences
Decision	Disqualification for 12 months, £250 fine
Other	Granting a search warrant upon the police request

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