Stacie Hunt
Senior Project
June 16, 2009
I completed my senior project at the law firm Tone, Grubbe, McGory, Vermeeren Ltd. It is based in Sandusky, Ohio. I learned a lot about different kinds of law while shadowing Mr. Grubbe and Mr. Vermeeren. I was able to experience the daily operations of a law firm while broadening my knowledge of the legal field.
On the first day I was with Mr. Grubbe. He is a magistrate at Kelly’s Island, Ohio. We took a boat trip over there for the day, so that I could experience the court. It was arraignment style court, where several different people were there for various offences. Mr. Grubbe presided over these cases and I monitored his work. It was very interesting to me to watch him make decisions about the cases, punishments, and how he interacted with the help as well as the offenders. Most of the cases were about traffic violations at Kelly’s Island. I learned that there are two kinds of moving violations, traffic and criminal. TRD stands for traffic moving violation while TRC stands for criminal moving violations. We only heard TRD cases while at Kelly’s Island.
On the second day, I was with Mr. Vermeeren. He was working on a case involving a quick claim deed from the railroad. This means that you may be sold the ownership to a property, if the property is actually rightfully owned by the railroad. This is because in the 1800’s eminent domain was used to take lands for railroad use. Eminent domain is when land is taken for public or private use with just compensation. Mr. Vermeeren secured the man’s right to his land by using adverse possession, which is the land is rightfully yours if you have lived and owned it for more than 21 years. We then went into court to settle the matters with the opposing attorneys. It was quite amazing to watch them arguing and bargaining. Both sides were intensely fighting for their clients. In the end, the opposing attorneys caved in and signed Mr. Vermeeren’s paperwork...