IUPUI MATH 171 – Commercial Law Assignment
Subject: General Questions / General General Questions
Question
L203 – Commercial Law
Applied Learning Assignment #3
This assignment is required. The purpose of the assignment is to demonstrate your
ability to apply course concepts to an actual legal case.
The topic for this assignment is a news article about a lawsuit involving one or
more tort claims.
Due Date – See the Course Schedule: This is an out-of-class assignment and is to
be turned in no later than the beginning of class on the due date. Late submissions
will not be accepted or graded.
The Assignment:
1) Find one article from a news source that pertains to the topic above. The article must be about an actual case (pending or completed). The article may be from a newspaper, a magazine, any other periodical, or
an internet site. You should select an article that contains sufficient
information and detail to answer the questions on the Assignment Sheet. The article must have been published within the past year. Do not use cases published in law journals, law firm blogs or on-line case
search indexes. Do not use actual court opinions.
2) Complete the Assignment Sheet that follows this page for your selected
article. Submit on-line in Canvas and attach a copy of the news article to your
Assignment Sheet. An Assignment Sheet which does not have a copy of
the article attached will not be accepted or graded. For maximum points, include sufficient information to fully answer each
question. Apply course concepts to explain your answers. Typed assignments are expected; you may copy the Assignment Sheet
into Word and type your answer into each section.
3) In preparing your Assignment Sheet, use complete sentences for all of your
answers.
4) Please ensure that your name is on the Assignment Sheet.
Grading: A maximum number of points you may earn for this assignment is 50.
Each student is to complete one Assignment Sheet that meets all assignment
criteria. Points earned from this assignment will be added to the student’s total point
score for the semester. (See the course syllabus for the course grading scale.) Points for each section are shown on the Assignment Sheet. The overall
Assignment will also be scored for professional appropriateness in appearance,
grammar, spelling, syntax, and punctuation. L203 – Commercial Law
APPLIED LEARNING ASSIGNMENT #3
ASSIGNMENT SHEET
________________________________________
Student Name (signature, then printed)
Entering my name certifies that this assignment is my original work,
completed without help from others, and this submission has been
completed in compliance with the Honor Code of the Kelley School
of Business – Indianapolis. Part 1, Case Identification and Appropriateness:
If your case does not fit the criteria described for the assignment, this Assignment
Sheet will be returned to you with a score of zero.
(1 point): State the title of the article, the name of the publication in which it
appeared and the date of publication. Article Summary (2 points): Provide a summary of the news story, with emphasis on
the facts. Part 2, What Kind of Case Is It?
(2 points) Is this case public or private? Explain your answer. (2 points) Is this case in state court or federal court? Part 3, Jurisdiction:
(3 points) Explain why this court has jurisdiction over the subject matter of this case. (2 points) Explain why this particular court has jurisdiction over each plaintiff. (2 points) Explain why this particular court has jurisdiction over each defendant. (2 points) At what phase in the legal process is the case? (Refer to the diagram in
the Chapter 2 Lecture called Phases of A Civil Lawsuit.)
Part 4, Learning Application: Apply course learning to answer the following
questions about the lawsuit in your news story.
(2 points) Name the plaintiff(s). (2 points) Describe the duty(ies) the plaintiff asserts were owed by the defendant(s). (6 points) What does the plaintiff have to prove to prevail in this case?
1)
2)
3) (3 points) What is the legal standard that will be used to determine whether the
plaintiff has met the burden of proof in this case? Describe what this burden of proof
means. (3 points) What kinds of damages is the plaintiff asking for? Or, if the case is over,
what did the plaintiff ask for? If not stated in the article, what should the plaintiff ask
for? Be specific. (3 points) Are punitive damages appropriate in this case? Explain. (2 points) Name the defendant(s). (2 points) What kind of defenses has the defendant raised? Or, if the case is over,
what defenses did the defendant raise? If not clear in the article, what are the likely
defenses? (6 points) What result or outcome do you think the case should have? How should
the court rule? (Or, if the court has ruled, do you agree with the outcome? Why or
why not?) Use course concepts to explain your answer. Quality of Submission:
No answer required here.
(5 points) Appearance of submission is appropriate for a professional business use.
This includes proper grammar, spelling, punctuation and syntax.