Intake

AuthorRebecca Ann Taylor
ProfessionWriter and attorney
Pages173-177
173
During the intake process, after you have as complete a picture as possible
of what happened, obtained from your client’s own statements, examination
of other sources, and visits to the area where the subject events occurred
(if necessary), you should have a goal to reduce the facts to writing in
a comprehensive memorandum to yourself and the le. A computerized
summary of the facts will likely serve as the foundation not only for your
complaint, but also for other documents you will most likely need to draft
in the litigation. From this initial document you can already begin formu-
lating interrogatories, document requests, deposition questions, motions,
and possibly your strategy from beginning to end.
Imagine that you are an attorney representing someone who was
arrested just last night for participating in a protest event. What ques-
tions do you ask them to help prepare your case? First, before asking your
client any questions, have him write down an account of what happened
in his own words, without any coaching from you. This will let your cli-
ent mentally walk through the sequence of events at his own pace, and
his memory may be independently jogged as to other things that he might
otherwise have forgotten if he did not write everything down or if you
had questioned him rst.
Once your client has initially exhausted his memory on his own, you
should ask him the following questions that might further jog his mem-
ory to provide additional events, details, witnesses, and evidence. This list
includes questions to illicit facts needed to articulate necessary elements of
Chapter 10
Intake
Taylor CivilRightsLit_20131004_16-30_Confirmation Pass.indd 173 10/23/13 10:43 AM

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