February Post: Extending the Presidential Term

       One thing I found interesting while reading a Carribbean newspaper was that a country, called Guyana, had numerous people, including politicians, who wanted to extend the presidential term limt for previous president Bharrat Jagdeo. Due to the high popularity of Jadgeo, this became a huge controversial topic. Although many supported this, it was deemed unconstitutional to remove the term limit and thus a new president was elected, Donald Ramotar. Ramotar has been in presidency for 3 years and 87 days. I found this all very interesting because this is a place that I have family connections to as well I have been there before. It's also very intriguing to read about political issues of another country.

Donald Ramotar, President of Guyana

Blog 16: Answer 2

1.  What is your EQ? 
What strategy is most beneficial to defend a client in a misdemeanor case?

2.  What is your first answer? (In complete thesis statement format)
The most beneficial strategy to defend a client in a misdemeanor case is to try and get a plea bargain.

3.  What is your second answer? (In complete thesis statement format)
Another extremely important strategy that is beneficial to defend a client is to use proactice listening to the client's specific background story and needs.

4.  List three reasons your answer is true with a real-world application for each.

1. Each client is different and has a unique life situation, for example, if a lawyer does not know that a client is undocumented they can ultimately cause deportation.

2. I defined beneficial as for both the client and the lawyer. In a real life situation the job of the defense lawyer is to get the best deal for the client, if the lawyer does not listen then they won't be able to understand the client's needs.

3.The client meetings are very crucial and the lawyers must practice proactive listening. Public defenders must meet quickly and efficiently with many clients throughout the day so they must be able to allow the client to give as much info as posssible and then be able to comprehend it before helping the client make a decision.


5.  What printed source best supports your answer?

Ruddy, Sara H., Nancy Yuenger, and Jeff Adachi. California Criminal Law Procedure and Practice. Oakland, CA: Continuing Education of the Bar--California, 2008. Print.

6.  What other source supports your answer?

Honestly, my other source is my mentor and the other lawyers at the public defender's office when I shadow them 

7.  Tie this together with a  concluding thought.

Through more research and experience, I have found my second answer to be that the use of proactive listening to the client can greatly benefit the outcome of the help from the lawyer. 

Blog 15: Independent Component 2 Approval

Content: 

1.  Describe in detail what you plan to do for your 30 hours.
 For my 30 hours, I plan to spend the time working on Speech & Debate. Basically, my next focus for research is going to be geared toward trials. From what I've witnessed and researched so far, trials are of similar structure as Public Forum debates. So I am going to prepare and work on those skills by researching and competing in the next Public Forum debates coming up. 

2.  Discuss how or what you will do to meet the expectation of showing 30 hours of evidence. 
 As far as evidence is concerned, I can turn in my speeches that I have written and the Judges notes and pictures as proof I worked and competed.

3.  Explain how this component will help you explore your topic in more depth.
I stated this in #1, but this will benefit my exploration of my topic through providing me with skills necessary to public speaking as required to be a public defender. It also gives me experience with the structure of a debate which happens to be similarly structured to a misdemeanor trial thus giving me a better understanding of the process and extent of research required to be successful. 

Blog 14: Independent Component 1

Content:

LITERAL
         (a) Write: “I, Givanti Chatapal, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 32 hours of work.”
         (b) California Penal Code 2014 With Selected Provisions from Other Codes and Rules of Court: Desktop Edition.. California: West , 2013. Print.
         (c) Update your hours in your Senior Project Hours link. Make sure it is clearly labeled with hours for individual sessions as well as total hours. See Senior Project Hours (right column).

        (d)I continued my mentorship at the West Covina Public Defenders Office doing exactly the same things as I had been doing throughout the summer and this year. Which was shadowing the lawyers through client meetings and arraignments, and also helping out in the office mostly doing clerical work.

 INTERPRETIVE 

             The reason I chose to continue doing this is that with more experience in the office and shadowing I get a feel of what it would be like doing this as a career and also the second hand work that is provided for the lawyers to be able to do their jobs. Doing more mentorship is valuable to me because being there is where I get the most information about how to go about doing the research that I read in real life. Also, a lot of my research are about laws and how to go about processes in the courtroom and through mentorship I can see how to do those things successfully and the different ways each of the lawyers in the office proceed to do them. 

APPLIED

             This component helped me grasp the concept of how to successfully run a client meeting and understand more about arraignments. More experience with the client meetings was probably the most beneficial because that is what the Public Defenders spend most of their time doing and it helped me understand my answer 1 more because you have to talk to the client before you can accept a Plea Bargain, which is my answer 1. More specifically, I got to see situations where clients denied the plea bargain and moved on to trial. In seeing this, I knew that my next focal point of research would be on how to successfully get the best decision out of a trial for the client. 

Front view of the West Covina Courthouse

The back/employee entrance to the courthouse

       Inside the Courthouse