I've been looking at a new development in Camarillo, CA. I just got the call on Friday telling me the next phase has been released, and I have to come in and sign the purchase agreement for my selected place on Sunday (8/14/05).  I asked to review the purchase agreement and CCRs over a month ago, and again on Friday after I got the call to come in and sign, but they keep telling me it's their "policy" not to give out the purchase agreement, even for review, until the time of my signing appointment.  They then state that I "shouldn't worry," because I have 3 days to rescind after the date of signing.

After taking a year of contracts, it seems bizarre to me that they would have such a policy. Their policy blatantly deprives me of any opportunity to have an attorney review this document or recommend changes prior to my signing it.  In fact, it doesn't even give me a reasonable amount of time to sit down by myself, read through it, and evaluate all of the provisions prior to having to either sign it or lose the place to someone else walking in an hour later.  Further, it presumes that three days is enough time to find a good attorney, set up an appointment, have him/her thoroughly review the agreement, consult with me in person, and allow me reasonable time to consider all the facts and make an informed decision as to whether I should rescind.  Without going into a bunch of enforceability defense theory, their policy seems to unnecessarily compromise their ability to enforce their own agreement against me. 

This is the second builder (out of two) I've met who has such a policy.  Anybody know if this type of policy is commonplace (i.e. "industry custom")?  Or are these developers not really serious about enforcing these kinds of agreements against a disputing purchaser?  Maybe they just assume most people aren't familiar with how to attack the enforceability of such an agreement.  Am I missing something here?

Flemmings is great to reinforce the basics...Civ Pro, Property, Con Law, etc.  Listening to the CDs toward the end of the semester really helped bring the material together.  In addition, using the printed outlines that come with the CDs worked as a great cross-check for my own outlines.

What a relief.  I'm glad there are still people out there making the case against using a computer to take law school exams.  I hope that the majority of my classmates feel the same over the next few years as I complete my law degree.  I just completed my first semester of law school, and I opted to use my laptop with ExamSoft for the exams.  Unfortunately I believe I had a tremendous advantage over my classmates that wrote the exams.  For this I am truly guilt-ridden.  Within seconds of the start of the exam, I was able to begin outlining my answers on computer instead of using a piece of scratch paper that never gets graded.  I could then build my outlines into complete answers by effortlessly constructing, modifying, and rearranging the elements of my arguments as I went. I moved and refined words, phrases and paragraphs and corrected grammar and spelling until my masterpiece was complete.  At no time did I have to cross anything out, or worry about the legibility of my writing.  Sadly, even though I feel terrible about my obvious distinct advantage over my classmates, I know I'll probably continue to use ExamSoft.  But I do feel better getting all this off my chest. Thanks for the forum.

Cali -

I attended SW as a PT student throughout my time there (Dec '06 grad). Because I always maxed out my units (11-12 per semester; 5-6 every summer), I was able to graduate after only 3.5 years, even though I was working full-time and commuting all the way from Ventura.  So even if you stay PT, if you take enough units, you can graduate in about the same amount of time as the FT folks.  Further, I had plenty of friends who started as PT, and were able to switch to FT after the first year.

I enjoyed my time at SW, and had no trouble passing the CA bar on the first attempt.  So I think it's a great school.  Enjoy it.

With respect to living arrangements, if you visit the school, they always have roomate ads up on the boards.  I would try not to lock in long-term with someone you don't know very well.  You may eventually meet people in class who would make a better roomates than your original cloice, and you want to maintain the option of exploring those opportunities within the first year.

Best regards.

So I've decided that I will be attending Southwestern Part-Time this fall.  I really wanted full-time but after talking to admissions today they informed me that no decisions will me made until the very end of July/beginning of August and I just can't wait that long to find housing and move.  Also there was no guarantee that I would be able to still have a part time spot if not offered a full time one.  So I figured, why jeopordize an opportunity when I can just go part time and then transfer to full time next year.  So now I have to find an apartment in LA!  Anyone have any suggestions? 

To all the SW folks -- congrats.  I'm in my last semester at SW, and I've had a lot of fun along the way. If there's anything you want to ask about, I'm usually up in the Tea Room by about 5pm on my class nights (T, W, Th this semester).  I can also introduce you to some of the other 2L and 3L types I hang out with.  You're sure to pick up some good outlines and info along the way.

Best of luck!