Common Courtesy

...Some people have none.

Today was my first day of getting called on in class. I walked into Civ Pro and sat down next to my dear friend Logan as usual. Normally, before class Logan and I talk about how we're definitely getting called on and how as a result the class is going to be really entertaining. On these days I'm usually in one of two situations--I know the case like the back of my hand, or I really spent like 30 minutes reading over it in Intro to Law and am pretty much doomed. In either situation, I've never been called on.

So this day in particular was a bit different. I walked into class feeling nonchalant about getting called on. I spent time reading the case and got the general jist of it, but I still felt so brain-dead from the week I really didn't have the mental capacity to worry about anything at that point. Call on me Brooks, sure. Whatever. When are finals over? Rather than starting to discuss the certainty of our soon-to-be-demanded class participation, Logan says "Neh, we're not getting called on today. He's definitely going on over to the other side of the classroom." Nonetheless, we kinda review the case a bit until Brooks walks in and starts the lecture. I'm down taking notes when I hear:

"Ah, now.... for the Mullaney case... we have a.... Ms. Olson and a.... Mr. Pratt."

Ironic? Yes.

So, we begin the discussion and needless to say I'm feeling pretty nervous. Good thing about feeling nervous is that your brain kind of stops working. Which was good... because when I looked down at my case book it wasn't like I wanted to actually be able to read and comprehend the words my eyes were glazing over... nope... that would just have been so NOT helpful.

Anyway, Brooks starts asking us some questions. Unfortunately, almost all of the questions he asked me specifically were about past cases. Did I review any prior cases that dealt with Notice Jurisdiction? Nope. Was I pulling stuff out of the air? You bet. Also unfortunately, our case was about trust funds and what not. Do I know ANYTHING about finance or economics? No. And don't "you should have looked it up" me. I did, people. I Wikipedia-d that crap for a loooong time. I still will never understand how it works. Never.

So, we start going through the case and I would say Logan and I were kind of on a rollercoaster:

"Ms. Olson, what is the State's interest and the market effect in efficiently settling the common trust fund?"

"If the funds aren't settled, the whole process will be discouraged. The trustees aren't going to want to be trustees anymore."

"Yes! We need them to help out the small fry!"

"So, Ms. Olson, how would you notify your neighbor of an In Rem suit against them under the Pennoyer regime?"

"Couldn't you just give them notice personally since you are right there and the whole point of attaching the property is giving them adequate notice?"

"Mr. Pratt do you think that's right?"

"Yessss...?"

"Ehhhhhhh....No, you have to still attach the property."

(Audrey you idiot he said Pennoyer regime not Mullaney regime.)

"Ms. Olson, so if they aren't determining sufficiency on the basis of the In Personam/In Rem distinctions, how are they going about doing it?"

"They are looking to see if the notice is Constitutional"

"And how are they doing that Mr. Pratt?"

"By comparing and weighing the competing policies"

"Yes!"

We got some right, we got some wrong. Honestly, we didn't do any better or any worse than students typically do in that class. It was whatever. We didn't really stand out in any particular way (other than the fact that Brooks seemed to think we were funny, which is at least kinda good.) What DID however stand out, were a few notable classmates, who I think oh-so-dearly-of now having had this experience in Civil Procedure.

At the beginning of law school, I remember having a conversation with Mr. 31 about how I hate it when people steal other people's questions during the Socratic method. I think it's rude, I think it's classless, and quite frankly I find it to be the behavior typical of a know-it-all brown noser whose overly active class participation is nothing but a need to over-compensate for a vast absence of a large number of reputable qualities. Whoops, did I say that?

What exactly is stealing questions during the Socratic method, you ask? Well, it is when you are the day's victim and the professor asks you a question. The professor wants and expects you to answer the question, and so naturally you want to be able to give as best of an answer as you can. When this happens, one of the following scenarios will occur:

Scenario #1: You take a few seconds (not minutes, folks) to formulate your response before delivery. Delivery of an acceptable answer is fully intended and would have been guaranteed but-for the interjection of the question-stealer. The question-stealer raises his or her hand in such a way that the professor calls on him or her instead of letting you respond as you fully intended to do. After being called on, the question stealer will either:

a.) Get the answer right in an attempt to try to make themselves look smarter by suggesting that you didn't know the answer but he/she did.

b.) Get the answer wrong and therefore display his/her selfish need for praise at no benefit to anyone.

Scenarios 1(a) and 1(b) both happened to Logan and I in Civ Pro today. To the question-stealer from Scenario 1(a): For your information, home girl, I DID know that answer so you can take your "oh my gosh that was so obvious you are so frustrating for being so stupid" attitude and go try to kiss someone else's butt with it. And for the question-stealer from Scenario 1(b), Seriously? Did you really just do that?

Scenario #2: You are responding to a question, however mid-response the professor cuts you off to question what you are saying. Before you can explain what you were saying and deliver the blatantly obvious answer that you easily and readily know, the question-stealer pops on in and seems to decide that it is his turn to talk. What this question-stealer isn't aware of is the fact that he doesn't actually look smart for answering the question, because 95% of the class knows the answer. He jumps in and steals the question, thinking he has unlocked some incredible puzzle, only to look even more dumb by thinking that no one else other than him knew the answer. This question-stealer is just down right foolish.

Scenario #2 did definitely happen to me personally. And to this question-stealer, all I can say is I hate you. Really, I do.

So, there you have it folks. Remember my last post about Rumor #1 in law school being false? How people are not cut-throat and competitive? I was wrong. They are. Well, sometimes. So, basically, I'm going to combine the two and say that in this environment, there are no extremes. As can be expected, you have your mix. You have your nice, kind, awesome people... and you have your selfish d-bags you want to punch in the face. The goal is to surround yourself with as many of the former type as possible while resisting as strongly as you can the urge to key the latter's vehicle on your way home from school.

And don't worry, so far I have been quite successful at meeting this goal.

Well... at least for now.