Fact Investigations

Catalog description

Enrollment Limit: 12 Course Requirement: writing assignments Fulfills Concentration Elective: Criminal Law This course will teach students how to perform one of the most important functions performed by lawyers ? discovering facts. The course will be taught as a partnership between the law school, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and the Wecht Institute for Forensic Science. Journalists and forensic investigators will lecture and lead discussions on developing strategies for investigations, conducting interviews, obtaining government documents, internet searches, computer-aided investigations of big data, and forensic science. Students will work in groups. Each group will be assigned a journalistic-style investigatory project and uncover facts to determine how some aspects of the criminal justice system is functioning or not functioning. Possible investigations include, as examples, an examination of how police are using GPS monitoring to track suspects or an inquiry into how well crime labs are functioning. Each group will then produce a report at the end of the course detailing what was found, how the facts were discovered, and the significance of the findings. This year?s primary project will explore health care fraud cases and consider how prosecutors decide whether to leave the matters to civil lawsuits or bring criminal charges against those engaged in such schemes. Instructor approval required. Please email Professor Oliver ([email protected]) an expression of interest and attach a resume.