Chapter 15: Assignment 2 Textook is Legal Research, Analysis and Writing by William H. Putman. 4th edition.

Describe the steps of the pre-writing stage.

Chapter 15: Assignment 12

The paralegal is assigned the task of preparing an office legal memorandum. The memorandum is due in seven days, and there is a five-page limit. The facts of law are as follows:

Facts: The client, Jim, a 15-year-old-boy, had a small single blade pocketknife in his backpack. He had used the backpack several weeks ago when he went on an overnight fishing trip with his dad. The knife was a typical pocketknife. It was 2-1/2 inches long when folded and the blade was 2 inches in length. The blade locked into place when the knife was opened. The blade was sharp on one edge and had a pointed tip. Jim forgot the knife was in his backpack, it had slipped into the bottom corner and he had not noticed it in the pack since the fishing trip. Another student told a teacher he saw the knife in the client's backpack the day before.

Law: The state criminal statute 13-3102 provides: A person commits misconduct involving weapons by knowingly possessing a deadly weapon on school grounds. The criminal code 13-105 defines "knowingly" as "a person is aware or believes that the person's conducts is of that nature of that the circumstances exist. It does not require any knowledge of the unlawfulness of the act of omission."

Case Law: In re Vincent V. In a fact situation similar to Jim's, the court ruled that a deadly weapon is "anything that is defined as lethal use." The court further held that the determination of whether a knife is a deadly weapon under 13-3102 depends on the "size, shape sharpness, and type of knife."

Part A:

Detail the application of each step of the prewriting stage to this assignment.

Part B:

For the organization step of the prewriting stage, an extended outline based on the outline presented in Section IV.A.3.c(ii). Note there are two issues in this assignment, one involving the "knowingly" element, the other involving the "deadly weapon" element.

Part C:

Based only on the preceding information, fill in the extended outline. Include a statement of the issues, analysis, counter-analysis, conclusion, and recommendation.