More Than Buildings: February 2018

Class Report: 2-26-2018

1.0 Setting Up

Originally four NU Law Lab students signed up for class, but currently one student signed up
Marilyn tells story of her first post-grad job working in construction
Dan shows up with NU Student, Kevin
First day of Spring quarter for upper level law students, changes during add/drop period expected
Finalized NU student list by Wednesday’s class

History of the NU Law Lab

Dan was hired as director at the founding
Had to form an advisory board of “knoweldged, learned people”
Given a list with names created from a meeting brainstorm
Found Marilyn’s name on list and searched website for her work
Cookies and lemonade meeting to connect and learn from each other before appointing board
Still to this day, no one knows how Marilyn’s name got on the list

Project Preparation

During today’s class, three design problems were addressed
Supplies for class’s design solutions include Bristol board, construction paper, colored tape, markers, scissors, glue, etc.

The Big Take-Away from the class set up and introductions would be that regardless of our situation, we must listen to the wise words of Tim Gunn and “make it work.” Meaning that no matter how many law students or where we find ourselves in our first post-graduation jobs, everything will work out.

Fairness bp|2

I want to discuss Woman Owned Businesses and how the government intervenes in this. The questions brought up in class, “Is it fair that there is a set amount of space set aside for the government to require certain types of businesses?” or “Should the state give preferential benefits to a woman for the sole reason that she is a woman?” are so important to discuss, especially in todays society. The topic of this discussion was, is it fair, right, wrong, etc. From my opinion, I question what “fair” even means. History has not been fair and that has created different levels of classes.

Class Report - 02-05-18

]

February 05 Class Report – Mackenzie Kane

A. Plans for next week:

§ Next Monday (Feb x) the class will return to the Brooks Courthouse for a second time with a plan of strategic methods of gathering information. This information can include pinch points, photographs of impact areas, or paths of specific building users that inform us to their experience within the building.

§ Photographs and sketches from the visit will be placed on the class Google Drive folder for accessibility

B. Defining Strategic Methods:

a. Framing the Problem: How do we define the problem that needs to be solved? Problems cannot be appropriately or effectively solved without a full understanding of underlying issues or forces at hand.

i. Marilyn Example: A client may ask for a lot of windows, an architect’s job is to understand why they want that many windows. Is it for sunlight? Blurring the lines between inside and outside? Do they have kids they want to watch as they play in the yard?

Blog Post #2_Home-Field Advantage - Landlord Wins by Default

Blog Post 2

Throughout the course of the semester, we have tried to understand the paths and processes of housing court. The overall consensus is that there is no user-friendliness once past the security checkpoint. A main concern, I have found, is that landlords have the upper hand. They may (or may not) have been through the eviction process before, therefore lending themselves to better understand not only the processes of the system, but also where to go, when to be there, and what to say once in front of a judge.

Edward W. Brooks CourthouseBen Gilbert

The day that the class went to visit the Edward W. Brooks Courthouse is one that intrigued me and gave me an understanding as to what happens on a busy day for the courthouse. The courthouse consists of six floors, all of which serve specific operations that attend to the different trials courts in Massachusetts as well as Boston’s Municipal Courts. Visualizing the different courts working within one building can be mystifying and fascinating at the same time.

Blog Post #2: Overlaping Schedules

Last week in class, following our visit to the courthouse on eviction day, we were split up in to groups and asked to diagram the day in the life of various characters in the courthouse. These characters included the court staff, including Paul, the lawyers, including Dan, and the plaintiffs and defendants, who were, in our case, the tenants and landlords.

Sorry for Any Inconvenience

After much discussion of the process and witnessing it first hand, our class has identified certain “pinch points” within the housing court system. These pinch points are moments during summary process at which at least one user group is inconvenienced. The pinch points, therefore, are the places that we can intervene.

A Day in the Life: Missing Steps & Unanswered Questions (Blog #2 Mikaela Scarpace)

A Day in the Life: Missing Steps & Unanswered Questions

In class, we were tasked with a “day in the life” exercise. Each group was to map out the court case day for different parties – landlord, tenant, lawyer and courthouse staff. We tried to go through each step that the person would take on the day of a court case, including as much description as possible.

The landlord and tenant steps were very similar as they arrived at the courthouse with the struggle of figuring out where to go.

Class Report: 2-12-18 (Mykaela Scarpace)

Class Report 2.12.18

01. Edward W. Brooke Courthouse – Visit II – new observations, information & answered questions

Class Report: 1-25-18 (Mikaela Scarpace)

01. Edward W. Brooke Courthouse

Information desk

No people work at the desk to help people

Monitors behind the desk display court appointments

Resources for the All-Knowing

Throughout the semester we have been learning about the process of eviction and the issues that lie within the system that makes it hard for people entrapped in the eviction process to get out or get help. The past few classes, as a class we have discussed many different reasons as to why this is such a difficult process to handle as someone who might not have access to a computer or to knowledge higher than themselves. A couple main points to focus on are the process in which the tenant receives the notice to quit to the experience of the courthouse in general and the processes of court itself.

"Public" Resources

During the last class, we broke up in three groups and researched different things in relation to eviction court. I was a part of the Resources Audit, which meant that my group and I were responsible to research what was available to serve people who were going through the eviction process.

Inadequate Access | Blog Post 2

Eviction begins with a Notice to Quit. This notice, which many may not know, does not mean you have to vacate the premises by the date on the paper. It simply begins the process of eviction.

As discovered in class, the notice itself is not very clear. Written in law language, the actual writing is confusing and does not clearly state its position as the beginning of the eviction process. Once you get beyond the obscure language and interpretation of the writing, the notice to quit lacks reference to available resources.

Class Report 2|7|18

I. Woman Owned Businesses |

-We began the class by discussing woman owned businesses and how the governments laws/regulations take part in this

-Is it fair that there is a set amount of space set aside for the government to require certain types of businesses?

-Should the state give preferential benefits to a woman for the sole reason that she is a woman?

- Do you think its fair right, wrong, etc.… ?

Class Report: 1-31-18

I. Our Trip to Court

a. Spent the beginning of class disusing the trip to court last week

b. Discussed a case where a man is living in the basement apartment in a house and the landlady seems to be renting out each room in a single-family house (might be an illegal rooming house). It was a complicated case and we got the sense there was some shady things happening at this residence. The Judge kept telling the two parties to go see the mediator, but the landlady kept saying no, seeming to think the mediator’s decision wouldn’t be binding.