V. Work in pairs. Give your arguments for and against making contracts by writing (consider different situations)

What is the purpose of a Legal Office Memorandum? What is the format of a legal Office Memorandum?

VII. CASE STUDY:

Read the sample Memorandum of Law. What information is provided in the Memorandum? Comment on the format of the Memorandum of Law. What is the interpretation of the term “communication” by the Virginia Supreme Court? What is the structure of the memorandum and how is argumentation built into this structure?

MEMORANDUM OF LAW

Question Presented

What is the law in Virginia regarding the marital communications privilege, when the marital partners are legally separated and the communication is of a non-spoken type?

Factual background

Our client is charged with the robbery of the proprietor of a local 7-Eleven store. Two hours after the alleged incident, he arrived at the home of his estranged wife. He displayed $150.00 in small bills and coins in a 7-Eleven moneybag. The parties are now divorced and the prosecution intends to introduce her testimony as to the money and the moneybag.

Discussion of the issues

The Virginia Code restates the common law rule which prohibits a spouse from testifying against his or her spouse (without consent) as to any confidential communications made during a valid marriage (19.2-271.2).

A legal separation does not terminate marital rights and privileges and the subsequent termination of the marriage does not destroy the privilege. Menefee v. Commonwealth, 189 Va. 900, 55 S.E. 2d 9 (1949).

In Menefee, supra, the Virginia Supreme Court interpreted the term communication to include all information or knowledge privately imparted and made known by one spouse to the other by virtue of and in consequence of the marital relation through conduct, acts, signs and spoken or written words.

Our client’s display of the money and moneybag to his wife would therefore be a communication and would be considered privileged in that his legal separation would not affect the marital communication privilege.

Conclusion

Virginia law would prohibit our client’s wife from testifying about the money and moneybag as a violation of the marital communications privilege.

(Retrieved from http://www.nvcc.edu/home/wshannon/Legal%20Writing/8SMPLMEM.htm