Client interview
(20th march, tuesday)

I juz had my client interview!!! It was for my ‘communication skills for lawyers’ class. For the client interview, a senior wud pretend to be the client then we wud have to interview them. The point of dis exercise is to test our communication skills. Eg. how to ctrl the situation. Sounds easy rite? Its not so simple.

For eg, the 2 seniors wud pretend to wanna have a divorce, then suddenly a 3rd party wud enter the room n they’d start yelling at each other. One of the groups even had to interview 3 clients who were blind, mute n deaf! For my turn, I got Carole!!! (she’s from an earlier intake but I noe her coz she’s my frens hsemate n I go to their place very often.) when I saw inside, I was like damn! Coz although she’s a fren, she already warned us dat she’s the client from hell n dat she wudnt play favourites.

Our scenario was a bit diff from the rest of the other groups coz the others entered the room n were slightly briefed b4 the client entered. But when we entered, our ‘client’ was already sitting there n she scolded us for being late. Karen (my partner) n I immediately were on our toes. We din even have time to put our stuff down. But I tink we recovered nicely coz we instantly were all hospitable n offered her a bottle of water n some sweets. Then she calmed down n we even gave her a goody bag! (we din have to prepare the sweets n goody bag, but we did it in hopes of softening our ‘client’ – I tink it worked!!)

Then we got her details n asked ‘wad brings u here?’ she then launched into her story dat she was having an affair wif a married man. I asked her wad was her name n she sed ‘Lai’. I knew wad was coming but I had to ask so I asked for his full name. it was ‘lai xiu ching’ lol~ but I din laugh ofcoz, I juz smiled grimly. Then continued her story.

She was at a party wif the guy n she asked him to leave his wife but he was hesitant. Then she pushed him n he hit his head on a vase. She panicked n tot he was dead so he buried him at the hse the party was held at. (So bullcrap rite?? Hahaha~)

Then when we asked for the address she sed she din noe. But she proceeded to tell us dat she returned the nxt nite but the body was gone. (but I tot she din noe the address??) then when I pointed out the loophole in the story she sed she rmbred the hse coz there was a silver merc there n the hse had a blue roof, but all the hses there had blue roofs. -.-“

Then she moved on to tell us about the wife n dat she wanted to sue the wife coz the wife found out bout the affair n slapped her. She tried to trick us into giving her legal advice (we were’nt supposed to give legal advice to the cliens coz dis was juz the 1st interview, besides, we we’re not familiar wif all the law terms yet so if we gave the wrong advice, we were doomed.) by asking wad shud she sue the wife for, but we managed to sidetrack her into giving more details of her story. She then continued to say dat she beat up the wife n tied her up n kept her in her cupboard at home n fed her porridge everyday. (wth???) Karen n I were struggling not to laugh coz her story was so ridiculous.

Then during our last 10 mins, (we had 30mins to conduct the interview n gather all the info to make a report) she suddenly revealed dat she came from a mental asylum. I wanted to shout “WHAT???” so I kinda panicked coz I was unsure wad kind of case it was, I wasn’t sure if we were to take into account anything dat she had sed earlier. To make matters worse, she then continued her story about ‘mr lai’ except dat he was now her father n when we asked about the affair, she sed we were sick, ‘how cud she have an affair wif her dad??’. So Karen n I were like very lost but we still pretended we had everything under ctrl n we thanked our ‘client’ for coming to see us.

After our client left, our teacher sed we were very professional n we had great teamwork n we also asked good questions -although our client evaded most questions, but she sed it was not our fault. Overall she was very happy n we were very good! Yay!!!!

It was so fun!!! I cant wait to torture my juniors in a few mths time!! Hehe~

dis is jason n his partner, they went in b4 us


jason helped me take dis... nice le~ =p


the goodies we prepared for our client! (from left: a basket of sweets n choc, name card holder, our 'firm' paper with our letter head, the paper bag that everything was put into, a pen n our 'firm' notebook wif our letterhead on every page!)


dats karen on the left (i tink she's pretty!) she's from miri!


Call us n we'll fight for ur rights!!! =p


err... i forgot y i was looking there, but i wasnt ready yet! even if this may look like a posing photo... =p


future lawyers!!! *grin*
(actually i felt like a small child playing dress up n dat coat...)