Memorandum

Date: July 8, 2020 To: TA (List your TA’s name) From: Your Name Subject: Salt Lake City Third District Court: Attended June 16, 2020 at 8:30 am This memorandum details the Court Hearing Assignment for Business Law. First, attend (whether in person or virtually) a court hearing for at least an hour. Second, write a summary essay including both your observations of the case and an analysis of what you observed. Third, turn in the essay on Canvas by Thursday, July 9, 2020 at 11:59 pm. To receive full points for this assignment, you must follow the specified format and content requirements. Formatting requirements include word count, layout, font style, font size, margins, line spacing, and subject line. The body of your summary must contain between 250 to 300 words; include the word count at the bottom of the page. Format the essay in memorandum style with Times New Roman Font, a 12-point font size, and single-spaced line spacing. Margins are required to be 1 inch on all sides. Finally, include the following information in the subject line: the court name and the date and time of the court hearing attended. Although the format requirements are important, your grade will also be based on content. Content requirements include observations, analysis, and grammar. Write your observations of the hearing, and analyze those observations. The analysis is crucial. Some thoughts to consider in the analysis may be, but are not limited to: the case’s connection to a topic from class; your predictions on what the judge and/or jury will decide; and, if you saw the outcome of the case, your opinions on the decision. Lastly, you will be graded on grammar; therefore, make sure you double check your essay before you submit the assignment.

Word Count: 265

• Attend a virtual court hearing: 

The court are now starting to allow the public to join some virtual hearings.  For example, if you go to the schedule link for Salt Lake City Court links below, but here it is again, https://www.utcourts.gov/cal/SLC_Calendar.pdf(Links to an external site.) ,, and search “use this link,” you will find the following language listed after certain hearings:

Use this link to join the hearing:

then a link you can use to join that hearing.

• State courts:  https://www.utcourts.gov/cal/ (Links to an external site.) It has the District Courts and Justice Courts listed by location.  It also includes a link to appellate court arguments.  If you click on the desired location, it will bring up the court’s hearings by date and time.  Chose a court and time you would like to attend, and make sure it has “use this link” in the hearing in order to attend virtually.
• If you can find live links to any federal courts or appellate courts, you may also watch those to meet the requirements.
• Least preferred Option:  Watch a Supreme Court hearing previous voice recording, must be from 2020 arguments.
• https://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/argument_audio/2019 (Links to an external site.)
• If you have already attended at least an hour of a court hearing, you may also write about that experience. 

Step Two. Write a half-page essay

Actions

• 250-300 Word Summary —- THIS IS A STRICT LIMIT —–(Note: This includes the actual paragraph portion only, not the date, to, from, subject section). 
• Correct MEMORANDUM Format!
• Times New Roman
• 12-point font
• 1-inch margins
• single-spaced
• Word count of summary included at the bottom of the page
• The subject line must include Court Name, Time, and Date of Court Hearing attended

You will be graded on the following:

• Observations of the court hearing AND your analysis/thoughts of the things you observed (Must have BOTH)
• Proper Essay Format Requirements (as specified above)
• Grammar

Court Contact Information:

• Here is a link to the locations and phone numbers of all the Salt Lake County courts (including all cities within the Sale Lake County and including District Courts and Justice Courts).
• https://www.utcourts.gov/directory/courthouse.cgi?county=18Links to an external site. (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.Links to an external site. (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
• Here is a link that lists all the counties in the state in case you are planning to attend a court hearing outside of Salt Lake County.
• https://www.utcourts.gov/directory/(Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

Rubric:

Format:

-5 for missing partial memo format (see sample memo)

-10 for missing all of memo format (see sample memo)

-5 for missing any format requirements such as times new roman, 12-point font and/or 1 inch margins, etc. (for each error)

Word Count:

-5 for word count not stated at the bottom of page

-5 for 1-25 words above word count

-10 for 25-50 words above word count

-20 for 50+ words above

Content:

OBSERVATION

-5 some observation, not a full effort

-10/20 significant missing observations of the court, did not explain what the case was about or evidence/testimonies presented

ANALYSIS

-5 maybe some analysis but very brief

-10/20 missing analysis of the things they observed

Grammar:

Forgive 1-2 errors

-5 = 3-5 grammatical errors

-10 = 6-10 errors

-15 = 11 or more errors