Chapter 10

It was the late afternoon of an already long day when Kevin realized he still had a lot of work to finish before he could go home. Kevin has been Randi McGuire's paralegal for the past five years.He admires her for her tenacity, and he appreciates the responsibility and independence she gives him in the performance of his assignments. Kevin's primary role is to conduct the initial interview with the client, summary of the interview, then assemble a legal memorandum containing an identification of the legal issues and an analysis of the applicable law.

Identifying the legal issue is often the trickiest part of Kevin's job. It did not seem, however,that it would be too much of a problem in Ida Carry's case. He had just finished his interview with Ms. Carry, whose home is across the street from Roosevelt Elementary School. Ms. Carry's best friend, Karen, lives a block away. Karen's 7-year-old son attends school at Roosevelt.

Last month, on April 14, Ida was in her front yard planting tulips. It was lunchtime, and children were playing on the playground. She heard the crossing guard's whistle blow and tires squealing. She looked up and saw a car approaching a curve in the school zone at a very high rate of speed.It jumped the curb, crashed through the chain-link fence surrounding the playground, and hit the seesaw. The first thing she recognized was the carit was Bob Barton's hot-rod Camaro. It looked like he was going too fast, lost control on the curve in the school zone, and crashed through the fence.

Bob, a local teen, continually raced in the neighborhood. Several teachers complained to his parents,who did nothing. Bob had received several speeding tickets.

The second thing Ida noticed was that two children playing on the seesaw were injured. One of them was Karen's son,Tim. When Ida realized it was Tim who was injured, she became extremely upset.

Since the wreck, Ida has had severe insomnia and extreme anxiety. When she can sleep, she has nightmares.Her doctor prescribed medication for her nerves and to help her sleep, and he recently referred her to a psychologist. Ida came to Ms. McGuire's office seeking to recover the expenses she has incurred.

After summarizing the interview, Kevin focuses on the next task and asks himself, "What is the legalissue in this case?" The process of identifying the issue is the subject of this chapter. TheApplicationsection of this chapter discusses the answer to Kevin's question.