The Appellate Brief project that you will be working on is based upon the fact pattern in the Lesson 05 discussion question. This problem centers around the law of agency which we do not study as a class until Lesson 14, the week your final paper will be due. For this project, you will draft an appellate brief to the State of Florida appellate court. In this brief, you will present the issue(s) to be resolved in this fact pattern. You will conduct legal research utilizing the tools provided in the Lesson 05 video (How To Do Free Internet Legal Research). You will read and apply the law that you find into a discussion/argument answering the issues raised in the fact pattern.
While you are welcome to proceed at your own pace, certain benchmarks have been provided throughout the course of the semester to keep you on track to providing a fully written and edit final paper in a timely fashion. As such, your first step after re-reading the fact pattern is to review your fellow students Lesson 05 discussion posts to formulate the issue(s) to discuss in your paper.
STEP 1: Run a Google search to find the Wikipedia (or any other secondary source) definition of an employee and independent contractor – Lesson 06
STEP 2: Run a Google search to find the Wikipedia (or any other secondary source) definition of the term vicarious liability. Next, determine what it means for an agent “to act within the scope of their employment” – Lesson 08
STEP 3: Conduct your legal research. Find several supporting cases, statutes or administrative regulations that may help support your clients position and submit – Lesson 10
For all students whose last names start with A-M, you will take the side of the appellant (Chemco).
For all students whose last names start with N-Z, you will take the side of the appellee (Matthews).
STEP 4: Draft outline to your arguments, cover page, issue(s) to be presented on appeal and statement of facts. View the following attachment for an example of sample brief . Remember, however, that your Court is sitting in Florida. – Lesson 11
STEP 5: Draft the argument section of your paper. Here you are utilizing the research you have found to fully answer the issues on appeal – Lesson 12
