Noah Kaplan Blogs..."Learning about Law"

In the first minutes of the lesson Steve Friedland, our special guest, told us to imagine that we were all lawyers. He gave us some situations of crimes. He told us that he used to be a prosecutor. He then told us about a man that video taped his speedometer, put it on YouTube, was then caught and the tape was used against him as evidence. he then told us what a crime was. He said that in some cases killing somebody is not a crime. He then told us that a tort is. He told us that we would be in a " trial." He then gave us an example and we started the trial. In the beginning of the trail we learned words such as "battery" and "assault."

We were taught about the people that take part of the trial, such as the witness, the prosecutors, and the defendant. You then need to swear in that you will tell the truth. The prosecutor then asks a lot of questions, and shows evidence to the witness. The defense council also asks questions to re-exam, and try to help the witness to try to the defendant. The judge then makes sure that everything is in order. The prosecutor also gets a chance to cross examine the situation. The defendant was then called to the stand. He got quite tripped up and made a lot of mistakes. The victim did not agree with the defendant whatsoever. The eighth grade learned a lot about the court room. It was a very interesting experience for all of them, and a very fun scenario, to act out.

Noah Kaplan, BSDS '11