Conduct Some Research

Course outcome addressed in this Assignment:  

Communicate the results of legal research to appropriate parties.

Instructions

Please read through the following fact pattern. The fact pattern is one that you used last week.

Samantha Smith came into your office. She was shopping at a local grocery store a few months ago and had an accident. While she was in the aisle with shower items she slipped and fell on some shampoo that had leaked out of one of the bottles.

Samantha had to be taken to the hospital. She was diagnosed with a broken hip and had to spend the night in the hospital. She will also have to go through many months of physical therapy. Samantha has no healthcare insurance and is a young single mother to a 2 year old son.

The store says that they were not aware of the spill of the shampoo. The store said that an employee checks the aisles for anything on the floors at the top of the hour. The day Samantha fell, the employee in charge of the aisle inspection was an older gentleman with glasses. The shampoo on the floor was a clear gel. She fell about 1:30 p.m. The store log says an inspection was last done at 1:00 p.m. The accident happened in a store in Indiana.

Please conduct the basic research for this problem, using Westlaw. Then provide the following information:

Find one case that is mandatory authority for this problem.

Provide the following two items:

1. A short brief of the case. A proper brief should include: the full Bluebook citation, the facts, issue, rule, analysis, and conclusion.  

   A short FIRAC analysis applying one or both of the cases to the client’s problem based on the findings of your research. Click the icon below for an example of FIRAC.

   Here is an outline of what your FIRAC paragraph should look like:

   • Facts: Samantha’s case

   • Issue: The Slip and fall issue

   • Rule: The rule from the case you located on slip and fall. (full citation to case)

   • Analysis: Apply the case law you located to your facts. You can do this by making comparisons and applying the analysis from the case you located.

   • Conclusion: Based on the analysis above, what will probably be the result in Samantha’s case?

For more information on how to complete a brief read the article below.

Source: Blat, D. L., Esq. How To Brief a Case. Retrieved from
http://lawschool.westlaw.com/highcourt/HowToBrief.doc.