Reference no: EM133854442

Identify cause of action: Alice was recently hired by Kinsey Law Firm and placed under the guidance and supervision of Karen, a 15-year veteran paralegal. Karen did an initial interview with a client, Mr. Aper, and Alice sat in on the interview to observe the process and gain experience. After the interview, Karen told Alice, "I'm going to prepare a summary of the interview, then prepare a list of the potential issues. I want you to identify the key facts that should be included in the statement of the issues."

Alice's notes of the interview indicate that Mr. Aper owns a 1,000-acre farm on the outskirts of town. He has lived on the farm for the past 20 years. About 200 acres of the property are forested, and deer frequent the forest. Mr. Aper refuses to allow hunting on his property and, to discourage hunting, has fenced and posted the property.

One day, two weeks ago, Mr. Aper noticed a new path entering the forested portion of the farm. Someone had removed part of the wood fence surrounding the forest and apparently entered the property several times. He followed the trail and found several small pine trees cut down and a crude lean-to constructed from the trees. In front of the lean-to was a small fire pit where there had been a fire quite recently; the coals were still warm. Some of the wood removed from the fence was still smoldering in the fire. Mr. Aper got up early the next morning, before dawn, and watched the lean-to from a hidden spot in the bushes. Shortly after sunrise, he saw his neighbor, Eric Rascon, an avid bow hunter, come down the trail carrying a hatchet and loaded down with bow-hunting gear.

Eric proceeded to set up camp. He started a fire with wood from the fence and some old tree branches and cut down another small tree and added it to the lean-to. Mr. Aper stepped out from behind the bushes and confronted Eric. "What are you doing here? You know you can't hunt here. Who told you it's okay to cut down my trees? Get off my property!" Eric angrily replied, "You stingy old man. These deer should be hunted; it's nature's way. I'll leave, but I'll be back and start again; you can't watch this forest every hour of every day." Eric then left.

Mr. Aper wants to take whatever legal action he can against Eric. Alice's assignment is to identify the key facts in the case. The Application section of this chapter addresses how Alice performs her assignment. The chapter discusses facts in general and emphasizes the critical role of the key facts in a case.