To:

Potential "Plaintiffs" or "Clients"; Possible Victims of Wrongdoing

From:

Peter Tillers, Instructor in Course "Fact Investigation" at Cardozo Law School

In one way or another, you have been asked, invited, or encouraged to allow a law student or law students from Cardozo Law School to interview you. My students are participating in a law school course about fact investigation.

If you decide to cooperate with one or more of our students -- and you are not required to do so, of course --, we want you to tell them only what you actually know or believe; that is, we don't want you to pretend to be a witness, or pretend to know things that you don't actually know, or pretend to want things that you don't actually want, or pretend to be any person other than the person you actually are (unless, that is, you would do such things with a "real" member of a "real" law clinic or law firm). Our objective is to make your conversations or interviews with our students be as realistic as possible -- we want your conversations or interviews with our students to resemble, as much as possible, a real interview between a real lawyer and a real potential client or real potential witness. Hence, in any interview or conversation with any of our students we want you to pretend that our students belong to a public interest legal organization and that this organization might decide to bring a law suit or other legal proceedings on your behalf or on someone else's behalf or to engage in some form of public advocacy on your behalf. However, it is vital that you understand that no lawsuit or other proceeding of any kind will be brought by us or by our students on the basis of any information that you or any other person provides to any of us for purposes of our course about fact investigation; the interviews or conversations that any of our students may conduct with you are being done solely for pedagogical purposes. It is also important that you understand that nothing you say to any of the students is protected by the attorney-client privilege or any other privilege.

Please sign below to indicate that you have read or have been told of the contents of this notice. Our students are not permitted to interview you or to talk to you without your written signature on this notice. If you cannot sign this form, you must indicate in some other way (e.g., on a tape recorder) that you have been informed of the contents this notice. Thank you very much.

Name: ___________________________ (signature)

___________________________ (please print name)

Date: ________________________