CALI is in the midst of the Legal Education Podcasting Project. For this project, a number of law professors from around the country have agreed to start podcasting and making these podcasts available to enhance the educational experience of students in the professors' individual classes.

A number of the professors podcasting summaries of their classes have given CALI permission to make their podcasts available to people outside of the individual professors' classes. So CALI will be posting some of the relevant podcasts affiliated with the project here on the Pre-Law Blog.

We believe that these podcasts will be a great way for incoming students to learn about some basic concepts from 1L classes as told by an actual law professor to his or her students.

A special thanks goes out to all of the professors who have agreed to help us out with this!

In Contract Law, on rare occasions a court will hold a contract unenforceable when the contract is extremely unfair to one party. A plaintiff would use the defense that the contract is "unconscionable" in cases like these.

In this podcast, professor Scott Burnham of the University of Montana reviews unconscionability and reasonable expectations. The most famous case involving unconscionability is likely the Williams v. Walker-Thomas Furniture Co. case. Professor Burnham discusses Williams v. Walker-Thomas as well as substantive vs. procedure unconscionability, how to determine if a contract is unconscionable, and reasonable expectations. This podcast is a great complement to Professor Burnham's lesson entitled Unjust Terms (Unconscionability). Follow the link below to listen to the podcast.

Burnham_Unconscionability and Reasonable Expectations.mp3

Strict liability is the concept that a person/persons can be liable to another regardless of fault, no matter how careful the person who caused the injury was.

Your professor will discuss strict liability in your first-year Torts class. In this podcast, Prof. Ron Eades of Louis D. Brandeis School of Law at the University of Louisville discusses Strict Liability with animals and ultrahazardous activities and the shifting policies in this area of the law.

This podcast discusses material that is also covered in Prof. Eades' two CALI lessons Strict Liability and Animals and Strict Liability: Abnormally Dangerous and Ultrahazardous Activities

Click here to download the mp3 file Eades Ron.mp3

In this podcast, Prof. Jennifer Martin from Western New England College School of Law provides advice to students studying acceptance, the mirror image rule and the problem of the Battle of the Forms.

As a first year student, you will almost certainly encounter these topics in your Contracts class. Prof. Martin's podcast expands on her coverage of this topic in her CALI lesson Battle of the Forms (UCC 2-207).

Jennifer Martin:UCC2-207.mp3

One of the biggest differences between law school and undergrad is the the manner in which exams are given. Most significantly, in a law school class normally there is only one exam at the end of the semester which counts for nearly all, if not all of the final grade in the class.

These podcasts will give incoming students insight on how law school exams work, how to prepare for/take a law school exam, and most importantly what professors expect from students on law school exams.

From the CALI Radio Blog:
During the week of Oct. 17, 2005, CALI's Director of Curriculum Development, Deb Quentel, spoke with six law professors about outlines, studying for class, preparing for exams, time management, and how professors grade exams. The conversations were recorded as podcasts. While these podcasts are not intended to take the place of a conversation with your professor, the professors hope that these podcasts give law students additional insight into the exam process.

Panel 1: Professors Ron Eades, John Farago, Patrick Wiseman
683-Eades_Farago_Wiseman_exam.mp3

Panel 2: Professors Ron Brown and Joe Grohman
684-Grohman_BrownExams.mp3

Panel 3: Professor Darryl Wilson
685-Wilson_exam.mp3

CALI's pre-law blog is being developed in coordination with www.learnthelaw.org: The Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction's (CALI's) online resource for pre-laws. Some of the best CALI podcasts and other material relevant to incoming first-year law students will be posted here as a service to those incoming law students who are preparing for law school early.

Comments and questions can be sent to:
Austin Groothuis
Marketing/Communications Coordinator, CALI
agroothuis@cali.org