Legal Research and Writing Method (handout 3)

Sample of thesis statement

Parental consent and notification should not be required for teenage abortion
because it poses a threat to those living in unsupportive home environments and
the news of pregnancy could precipitate emotional abuse, physical abuse or
rejection from the home, while at the same time prompting the teenager to seek
risky back-alley abortions or delay obtaining appropriate medical care because of
not being able to comply with the requirements of the parental involvement laws.

The act of a personal manager procuring a recording contract for an artist without a
license does not of itself violate public policy.
The Talent Agencies Act defines a talent agency as any person or corporation who
engages in the occupation of procuring, offering, promising or attempting to
procure employment or engagements for an artist or artists. . . . Personal
managers, on the other hand, operate without the constraints of the Act and
licensing limitations. They have greater flexibility and may also gain additional
income from artists by producing projects in which the artist performs. Yet the Act
outlines limited circumstances in which personal managers can actually procure
employment thus complicating the issues involved.

While most American's find the idea of homosexuals getting married a threat to the
institution of marriage, the alternative idea of domestic partnership falls short of
both spiritual and legal benefits.

Requiring that sex offenders register every year with their local police departments
for the rest of their lives does not protect citizens who think that sex offenders will
comply with CCP 290 guidelines based upon their own personal sense of duty,
honesty and integrity.

The Department of Corrections is mandated by California Penal Code 3604(a) to

carry out punishment of death by lethal gas or by an intravenous injection of a
substance or substances in a lethal quantity sufficient to cause death and does
not violate the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution.

Thesis for Research paper..Right of PrivacyThe Terri Schiavo case

Does the state have any business intruding into the right to privacy: the right of
individuals----or whoever they designate to step in if incapacitated----to decide on
health care and other issues affecting their lives.

The act of escaping from prison normally results in felony charges against the
prisoner, however, the defense of necessity has been successfully argued when
certain circumstances are present.

For the past two centuries, the death penalty has been the subject of bitter debates,
which leave a lot of people doubting or challenging the justice system whether it is
considerate cruel and usual punishment or not. Can any criminal be rehabilitated,
or are the crimes so grave and evil that death is the only just punishment? Is it right
for the state, acting in our name, to put criminals to death, when many guilty
sentences have been overturned due to D.N.A testing? We question the justice
system; we, the hard working people, have to pay so much to support the death
penalty, yet the death penalty is ineffective. Because it prevents rehabilitation, it is
very costly, and chokes off the possibility of acquittal; therefore the death penalty
is ineffective.
---- Federal Forfeiture Laws should be the standard by which California Forfeiture
Laws are applied because they are more effective in stopping and mitigating
criminal activity associated with the selling, manufacturing or cultivating of
narcotics on real property.

Technology has provided new and better ways to make the workplace more
efficient, which includes new ways to observe employees at work. Many of these
new electronic options are proving to violate employees privacy rights.

The California death penalty is an inadequate means of penal punishment for the
ultimate heinous crime of capital murder. The death penalty is defined as a
sentence imposing death as punishment for a serious crime; A penalty that makes a
person or entity ineligible to participate in an activity that the person or entity
previously participated in. An individual who commits murder is in violation of
California Penal Code section 187 (a): Murder is the unlawful killing of a human
being, or a fetus, with malice aforethought. The definition of malice aforethought
is The requisite mental state for common-law murder, encompassing any one of
the following: (1) the intent to kill, (2) the intent to inflict grievous bodily harm,
(3) extremely reckless indifference to the value of human life (the so-called,
abandoned and malignant heart), or (4) the intent to commit a dangerous felony
(which leads to culpability under the felony-murder rule). One cannot interview a
convicted killer after he/she has been put to death. Therefore, society cannot place
itself in the mindset of the convicted killer leading up to his final destination point,
execution. Society does have the ability to interview the family and loved ones of a
deceased victim of murder. How many of those would say that the execution of the
murderer brought them no absolute peace of mind.
My plan is to do my final research/writing paper on the California death penalty. I
am against the death penalty as a method of penal punishment. Although I do not
know the exact angle I will approach as of yet, I do know that I do not believe a
death sentence is enough punishment for a heinous crime i.e. capital murder.
Although there may be some or much anguish on the part of the convicted
knowing that their life will ultimately be taken, I do not feel it equals to the
anguish of living out a life sentence without the possibility of parole. I feel that
prison life, day in and day out is more of a death sentence in the sense that it is a
mental, emotional, and spiritual death that is played out daily for what in a
convicted persons mind could seem like eternity. The knowing that one day their
anguish will end may be more consolation than living, eternal damnation in the
flesh.

Through the use of licensing agreements and other anti-competive measures,

Microsoft has created a barrier, which has enabled it to maintain its dominance in
the PC arena. These measures have made it economically difficult for its rivals to
compete and has limited the alternative to the Windows OS for the public.

Thesis Statement for Research Paper

DANGEROUS TOBACCO: Smokers, like all consumers, have a right to a safe
product. A safe product is one that is not harmful when used as the manufacturer
intends it to be used. Tobacco companies, according to smokers themselves, violate
this smokers' right, this constitutional right we all have.
"Every regular cigarette smoker is injured.... Cigarette smoking kills some, makes
others lung cripples, gies still others far more than their share of illness and loss of
work days.
Tobbacco companies have a record of suing to prevent government inspectors from
finding out what is in tobacco.

Roe v.Wade has been a controversial ruling since 1973, in particular during
confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominees.

My paper is going to be on the topic of the Child Online Protection Act, or for
short, COPA. This is Congress's latest attempt to censor the Internet. Our online
First Amendment rights are threatened by this legislation in much the same way
they were with its predecessor, the defeated Communications Decency Act (CDA).

I firmly believe that seniors only housing is unlawful and is a discriminatory

housing practice. And, it totally ignores and violates the provisions set forth in the
1988 amended Federal Fair Housing Act. (fn1) My concern is that this flawed
policy sets a bad precedence which sends a dangerous message to some housing
providers that its okay to exhibit discriminatory conduct against the very classes
that Congress intended to protect.

-Title of the Paper - Employers Beware: Employer Liability for Supervisory

Harassment -Thesis
The employer could be held liable for a supervisors harassment of employees even
though the employer was unaware of the behavior.

-Thesis Statement

Historically, employers were not vicariously liable for employees intentional torts,
including sexual assaults unless they were aware of such behavior and they
supported it. In addition past Title VII cases have held that supervisory sexual
harassment fall outside the scope of employment because it is motivated solely by
individual desires and serves no purpose to the employer.
However, in recent cases, The Supreme Court has argued that sexual harassment is
foreseeable in a workplace and an employer should bear the costs of this behavior,
even if the employer is unaware of such conduct. To limit this liability and as a
matter of public policy, the employer may raise affirmative defenses in certain
circumstances to such liability based on the reasonableness of the employers
conduct as well as that of the plaintiff victim. In contrast, generally the employer
liability for a co-workers sexual harassment of employees requires knowledge of
such behavior. These cases have held that the employers are liable where the
employer knew or should have known about the harassment and failed to take
immediate remedial action. These cases are treated separately from supervisory
cases since supervisors have special authority enhancing their capacity to harass
the plaintiff employee. In the same line of cases, employers may also be liable for
harassment by non-employees (such as customers) under certain conditions when
an employer failed to take steps to prevent the harassment.
Hence the trend of recent cases requires extra caution by employers to avoid
liability for sexual harassment caused by employees. Specifically the employers
should monitor the supervisor employees and reasonable care should be
exercised to prevent and correct promptly any sexual harassing behavior. In
addition employers should provide a system to allow any employee to report such
behavior immediately to the employer. To make things even more complicated for
the employers, in 1998 The Supreme Court has extended Title VII protection for
sexual harassment to SameGender sexual harassment. fn.5 Hence if the employer
fails to monitor the workplace, the employer could be held liable for a supervisors
sexual harassment of the employees -Scope of the Paper The focus of this thesis is
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the extent of the employers liability
for sexual harassment of employees especially by supervisor staff. The thesis will

also discuss and compare such liability as a result of sexual harassment by other
co-workers and also by non-employees.

Countless numbers of children fall through the cracks of the various social services
agencies and are abused by their care takers as a result of these departmental
oversights. These oversights often have adverse effects and severe consequences,
both short term and long. Abused children suffer from severe mental and emotional
through to adulthood, not to mention the physical injuries (ie:brain damage) that
will require long term care.The economy is often forced to carry the burden of
caring for these children after they are abused. Not only are there countless
numbers of abused children that are reported after the child has been killed or is
severely injured, but there are even more cases that go undocumented. Many times
abused children are returned to the parent that abused them and then are more
severely beaten or even killed. Past abusers are not properly monitored after an
instance of abuse, this is due to a lack of training in the social services department
and a lack of supervision over the social workers. Many adults that file suit against
the social services departments or the court that returned them to an abusive
environment do not prevail. The court nor the social services department bear any
fault when it comes to abused children.

Lawyers owe a duty of care to the expert witnesses they retain. Attorneys are
responsible for ensuring that their experts understand the legal principles required
to be proven by all parties to a lawsuit in their attempt to prevail. Failure by a
lawyer to uphold this responsibility creates a joint tortfeasor in the attorney and
thereby allows recovery by the expert for equitable indemnification from the
lawyer who retained the expert should the expert be sued by the underlying client
for professional malpractice.

Because Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,

prayer should not be in public schools. Public schools are for learning, not for
praying. Public schools have no right to assume parental authority by imposing
religion on schoolchildren.
--

The U.S. Government has violated Americans First Amendment rights with respect
to unreasonable searches which are conducted under the Patriot Act.

Thesis
To be undue influence in the eye of the law there must be to sum it up in a word
coercion It is only when the will of the person who becomes a testator is
coerced into doing that which he or she does not desire to do, that it is undue
influence. Lord Justice Hannen, Wingrove v. Wingrove, 11 Prob Div. 81 (1885)
Has the court overstepped its boundaries? What is proof of undue influence? Who
has influence on the testator if not the beneficiary? The agent? The attorney? The
doctor? The clergyman? The fianc? The court violates the essence of a will in the
process of defining what it believes the testator intended.
---- The city of San Diego v. John Roe is a case in which the petitioner believes
that his first and fourteenth amendment rights were violated. After being
terminated from his job as a City of San Diego police officer for engaging in
sexually explicit acts on the internet, Roe filed a suit alleging his rights were
violated. Roes rights in this case were not violated. Roe is a sworn public official
and has different standards to live by; therefore this law suit is without merit. This
Mans rights have not been violated. ---Smoking bans in the United States make it possible for citizens to enjoy there
constitutional right of clean air.
-For my research project I was going to write about the Taking Clause but I was
having some trouble finding information on it. The California Dog Bite statue
would be a more interesting topic for me to write about and there is a large amount
of information available on it. I got this idea because just recently on the news was
a case of a woman being attacked by a dog and she suffered terrible injuries from
the dog bite. Is it okay to change my topic?
Thesis Statement:
California Civil Code section 3342 imposes strict liability on the owner of a dog
when the dog bites a person. In this State, a dog does not get "one free bite." This

statue is aimed at preventing dogs and their owner misconduct and gives
prosecutors the power to enforce felony charges on anyone that owns a dangerous
dog that bites another individual. This statue does not infringe on the freedom of
dog owners nor is it aimed at targeting one specific breed of dog that is known to
be dangerous. This statue should serve as the model rule for other states to follow.
Unfortunately other states such as Ohio and Colorado have specific statues or
ordinance that are breed specific and does not serve a very effective approach for
regulating dogs behavior in communities. These states place certain bans on
specific breeds of dogs such as the Pit-bull terriers. Although these bans may help
to comfort individuals who have had unpleasant experiences with particular breeds
of dogs or heard of attacks by specific dog breads such as rottweilers in the media.
The bans are ineffective in that they are not practical and they dont properly
regulate the behavior of any breed of dogs or their owners Currently Certain people
are trying to pass similar bills through the legislature in California. This sort of
legislation is unreasonable and discriminatory. The California Dog Bite Statue is a
good law for many reasons. Those of which I plan to discuss in this paper.

Because many death row cases are overturned thru appeal,and alleged suspects are
set free or have already been executed, our legal system fails the wrongfully
accused.
--- Taking the extra time to get a warrant can be beneficial in the long run. If you as
a police officer is expecting to serve someone with a Warrant we might also obtain
an Search Warrant. It can make a different in how the officers actually obtain
evidence. Sometimes when an officer is anxious to make an arrest, forgets to
obtain certain legal documents that are necessary for the case against the person
that is going to be served. I believe that due to this reason there should be a legal
counselor that can have constant communication with the police officers. Not only
should the police officers contact the District Attorneys office but also have legal
counsel available to them.

In Texas v. Johnson the petitioner which is the state, is seeking to convict Gregory
Lee Johnson for publicly destroying an American flag, which is a violation of
Texas State law. Johnsons defense is that he is protected within the First
Amendment Free Speech. After publicly burning an American flag as a means of
political protest, Gregory Lee Johnson was convicted of desecrating a flag in

violation of Texas law. The question is whether the burning of the flag is a part of
First Amendment. Burning the American Flag is not a form of free speech.
--- Although other manufacturers are following General Motors lead, GM is the
leader in both technology and installation of the event data recorders, or so called
black boxes, in its passenger vehicles. These devices record pre- and postaccident data in the event an airbag is deployed, such as speed, brake status, and
whether or not the driver and passengers were wearing seatbelts. Since 1990, GM
has been gradually increasing the quantity of data that these devices store. The
National Highway Transportation Safety Administration published a paper
Recording Automotive Crash Event Data that analyzes GMs EDRs, including
detail on the data stored in each variation of the device and a technical explanation
for how the data is recorded. Drivers beware as law enforcement, insurance
adjusters, and car rental agencies are increasingly using the data from these so
called black boxes against us.

If The Lemon Test survives more than a couple of years after two Bush
appointments, I'll be shocked.

The complex dynamics within the hearsay rule and the exceptions to the rule make
hearsay, an ambiguous law.

Why is the Landlord/Tenant Law needed? Was this law created more for the
Landlord or the Tenant?

t is not in the publics best interest to have juvenile offenders tried as adults since it
does not reduce or prevent juvenile crime and when incarcerated in adult prison,
recidivism is higher and so is the cost to taxpayers.

Post conviction exonerations provide a great opportunity to reexamine the strength

and weaknesses of our criminal justice system and how they bear on the all
important question of factual innocence. There is a strong scientific basis for

believing these matters represent just the tip of the iceberg of cases.
Notwithstanding the research opportunities presented by the post-arrest and postconviction exoneration cases as to how wrongful accusations and convictions
occur, the most significant implication is the extent of factually incorrect
convictions in our Justice system must be greater than anyone wants to believe. In
Brown v. Vasquez, 952 F.2d 1164, 1166 (9th Cir. 1991), cert. denied, 112 S. Ct.
1778 (1992), the court observed that the Supreme Court has recognized the fact
that the WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS is the fundamental instrument for
safeguarding individual freedom against arbitrary and lawless state action. Harris
v. Nelson, 394 U.S. 286, 290-91 (1969), Therefore, the writ must be
administered with the initiative and flexibility essential to insure that miscarriages
of justice within its reach are surfaced and corrected. The process of the Writ of
Habeas Corpus, as it applies to the State of California, and the difficulty that has
arisen in the application of this right to cases where eventually the individual was
exonerated, will be addressed. --------Sexual assault is now recognized as one of the more significant problems in
modern Western society, ranking as a societal ill with nonsexual crime, poverty,
environmental damage, communicable and chronic disease, and substance abuse.
The severity of the problem of sexual assault is the result of the number of
individuals who are victimized and the degree of harm they suffer by their
victimization. Large-scale surveys using stratified random samples of the general
population have informed us of the prevalence of sexual assault. Approximately
one half of adult women surveyed report having experienced some form of sexual
victimization since the age of 14, and approximately one in six adult women have
experienced penetrative rape.

Divorce is the termination of a marriage by legal action, requiring a petition or

complaint for divorce in some states, including California by one party. Divorce
laws are complex and vary greatly from state to state Divorce issues enclose a lot
of things , first it comes the legal issues on child support, spousal support, child
visitation, child custody, property, social security benefits from retirement, court
and attorneys fees, getting a counselor for children and parents and so on .A recent
statistics shows that almost half of all marriages end in divorce. Divorce is difficult
for everyone involved, but maybe the hardest on children.

Earlier this month the United States Supreme Court approved a package of
proposed amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure that will make
dramatic changes to the process of discovery of "electronically stored
information." Barring the enactment of legislation by Congress, these new rules
will take effect on December 1, 2006. Those practicing in today's digital
environment must must be familiar with these rule changes and with the electronic
discovery process. Severe sanctions await attorneys, and their clients, who fail to
fully comply with the requirements for preservation and discovery of electronic
data.

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