Thursday, April 16, 2020:  12:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.

More than 90% of civil cases settle or are dismissed prior to trial, yet most litigants spend very little time thinking about whether or how to settle their cases. Learn when settlement makes sense, what resources and tools are available to you and how to negotiate effectively to get the best possible result without the uncertainty, time, and expense of taking a case all the way to trial.

Class covers:

• How to frame your case in the best light
• Whether settlement makes sense for your case
• The role of a settlement officer or mediation
• How to prepare for a negotiation
• How to negotiate effectively
• When to make an offer
• How to decide what is a fair result
• Documenting your settlement so you are protected

Presented by: Michael Schiller, Attorney, Law Offices of Michael I. Schiller

Location:
Torrance Courthouse, 1st Floor
825 Maple Street, Room 110
Torrance, CA 90503   (424)201-0748

Registration fee: FREE
Registration reserves spot
Free parking in the Torrance Civic Center parking lot. Walk-ins welcome!
Forms of payment accepted: Visa, MC, AMEX (no checks or cash please!)

Class approved for Court Interpreter Minimum Continuing Education (CIMCE) credit.

LA Law Library does not provide legal advice:
LA Law Library does not provide legal advice. LA Law Library provides legal resources and assistance with legal research as an educational service. The information presented in this program is not legal advice and is provided solely as an educational service to our patrons. For legal advice, you should consult an attorney.

Thursday, May 23, 2019   12:15 pm – 1:45 pm  CLASS HAS BEEN CANCELLED

More than 90% of civil cases settle or are dismissed prior to trial, yet most litigants spend very little time thinking about whether or how to settle their cases. Learn when settlement makes sense, what resource sand tools are available to you and how to negotiate effectively to get the best possible result without having to go to trial.

This class covers:

• How to frame your case in the best light
• Whether settlement makes sense for your case
• The role of a settlement officer or mediation
• How to prepare for a negotiation
• How to negotiate effectively
• When to make an offer
• How to decide what is a fair result
• Documenting your settlement so you are protected

Presented by:
Sandra Levin, Executive Director, LA Law Library
Sandra Levin is the Executive Director of LA Law Library, responsible for the conduct and oversight of its operations, including direction and implementation of programs, activities and policies. Prior to becoming Executive Director, Ms. Levin was a civil litigator for more than 25 years, practicing in administrative, state and federal courts. Ms. Levin was a founding principal of Colantuono & Levin, a law firm specializing in the representation of local government agencies. While at the firm, she served as the City Attorney of several local municipalities and as special and general counsel to other public agencies, including the Law Library. Earlier in her career, Ms. Levin also served as Mayor, Councilmember and Planning Commission Chair for the City of Culver City. Ms. Levin received her J.D. from the University of California, Boalt Hall School of Law in 1987 where she was a member of the California Law Review.

Barrie Roberts, ADR Administrator, LA Superior Court

LA Law Library does not provide legal advice:
LA Law Library does not provide legal advice. LA Law Library provides legal resources and assistance with legal research as an educational service. The information presented in this program is not legal advice and is provided solely as an educational service to our patrons. For legal advice, you should consult an attorney.

Tuesday, February 26, 2019:  6:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.

Join the LA Law Library book discussion group as we begin our 5th year and explore the theme of "Women and the Law" with a discussion of Sisters in Law, by Linda Hirshman. It would be hard to find two people less alike than Sandra Day O'Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the one a conservative who grew up on a New Mexico ranch and entered politics with the Goldwater wing of the Republican party, and the other a liberal Democrat from Brooklyn who had been a feminist activist for years before attaining her seat on the bench. Yet both SDO and RBG "recognized that women could use the law to pry open realms of life foreclosed to them by historical practices of exclusion" and they did just that! Sisters in Law is a thoughtful and fascinating chronicle of both their careers and lives and doubles as a concise history of the fight for equality for women.

Presented by:
Katie O'Laughlin, Managing Librarian, Reference & Research, LA Law Library

Registration Fee: FREE
Register online to reserve spot.
The first 10 registrants will be eligible to receive a complimentary copy of Sisters in Law, courtesy of Harper Perennial

LA Law Library does not provide legal advice:
LA Law Library provides legal resources and assistance with legal research as an educational service. The Law Library is pleased to offer our patrons the opportunity to obtain assistance from third party legal service providers at this and other events within the Library. However, the Library does not control and is not responsible for the content or scope of any assistance given by those providers.

Due to COVID-19, This class wil be broadcast online. Registrants will be emailed the information.

Thursday, March 19, 2020:  12:15 p.m. - 1:45 p.m.

A civil lawsuit starts with the filing and service of a written complaint. The complaint serves many purposes, including the identification of the parties involved in the lawsuit, the plaintiff's reason for filing a lawsuit, and the type of relief that is sought. The defendant must then respond to the complaint by filing an answer or another type of response. The complaint and the defendant's responses are called pleadings, and they set the stage for all that comes afterward in the lawsuit. In this class, learn how to prepare, file, serve and respond to civil case pleadings in California state courts.

Class covers:

• Is filing a lawsuit a good idea?
• Identifying possible legal theories
• Drafting the complaint
• Service of summons and complaint
• Answers and other responsive pleadings

Class approved for Court Interpreter Minimum Continuing Education (CIMCE) credit.

Presented by Ryan Metheny:
Ryan Metheny is the Managing Librarian, Legal Education at LA Law Library. After graduating from UCLA School of Law, Ryan practiced First Amendment law at a public interest firm in Berkeley. He then transitioned to librarianship to focus on his passions of research and education, and earned a master's degree in library and information science from the University of Washington. When not on the reference desk, Ryan coordinates the educational programming at the law library, the law student internship program, and the Members Program. He also teaches legal research at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law.

Registration fee: FREE
Registration reserves spot
Parking options available during registration

LA Law Library does not provide legal advice:
LA Law Library does not provide legal advice. LA Law Library provides legal resources and assistance with legal research as an educational service. The information presented in this program is not legal advice and is provided solely as an educational service to our patrons. For legal advice, you should consult an attorney.