Posted by BP/WV on 11/4/06 9:26am
Msg #157266

OT/ Real Estate Law

I‘ve been assigned a topic to write about in my Real Estate Law class. My imprecise professor advised me my topic is “Legislative documents”. He told me to think like a thesaurus.

What came to mind immediately was Consumer Protection, Regulation Z - Truth in Lending Act, Regulation C and RESPA.

I just do not feel as if I am on the right track.

If someone could point me in the right direction to research, I would greatly appreciate it.

Reply by David Kral on 11/4/06 10:02am
Msg #157282

Ask Around

Any teaching assistants, upper classman you can ask? Sometimes the libraians are helpful. Are there other books/papers in the library written in the theasurus format? Thesaurus seems a bit strange, but cross referencing in the law is often necessary so perhaps that is what he meant. How are your other classmates approaching the assignment in terms of structure?

Reply by Stamper_WI on 11/4/06 10:13am
Msg #157287

Re: Ask Around

I think that they are tweaking the RESPA laws as we speak. Also there has been a big battle going on about bankers as realtors. The National Realtors Assoc has been battling against that one for a couple of years. They see it as a conflict of interest. Good luck!

Reply by BP/WV on 11/4/06 11:03am
Msg #157301

Re: Ask Around

I will most likely need to ask him if he could be more specific about my topic.

I think he gave me a tough one on purpose. He knows I specialize in real property transactions. Other students received easy topics, such as: Federal Truth in Lending, HUD or Consideration Clauses. I was able to tell the other students what code, statute or act to research, off the top of my head.

I'm just left scratching my head on this one.

Reply by Bonnie_CO on 11/4/06 10:23am
Msg #157292

Sounds like you are on the right track, especially with all the recent legislation dealing with real estate.
As others have suggested, I would see if I could find someone that had this professors class before and ask. I had one like that and he about drove everyone nuts trying to figure out exactly what he wanted! Good Luck!

Reply by Les_CO on 11/4/06 11:44am
Msg #157305

Why not make it interesting?
Why is it that most attorneys that take the Real Estate Broker Test the first time (in CO, and most states ) fail the test? Perhaps because they don't study? Perhaps because their classes in "agency", "contract", and others, having to do with real estate are biased? Perhaps the belief that "the 'law' isn't always THE LAW" that's why we have courts/judges. Perhaps in the justification of their sole ability to 'interpret the "DOCUMENTS"?
Maybe a study on the real estate "closing" problems associated/compared with (adjusted for numbers) "Attorney States vs Non Attorney States?" would be interesting? Better yet, why some "Elected Moron" (usually an attorney) decides to propose/enact some new convoluted law, just to get a 'sound bite' on the news, and how this effects a multi-billion dollar industry, and always comes out of the poor buyer/seller's pocket?
My Disclaimer: This was OT, and all of the above is very likely B.S.!

Reply by MikeC/NY on 11/4/06 3:17pm
Msg #157322

What your professor told you to do (think like a thesaurus) is exactly the way we were taught to start our legal research when I was training as a paralegal - it's called "cartwheeling". Strange as it might sound, you are on the right track. The idea is to come up with as many words or phrases that are related to the topic you're researching, then use those to start researching case law in the digests. You're not looking for cases, but the concept is the same. Once you've come up with a list pf phrases (and it looks like you've got a good start), google each phrase and see what it leads you to.