Autumn Brown

Mrs. Kinlea Hensel

English IV Honors
2 February 2015
Topic Proposal: How much power do Judges really have?
Statement of Purpose:
The purpose of researching this topic is because my long term career goal is to become a
judge. I have been interested in law for about 4 years now and plan to pursue it the rest of my
life. How much power do civil court judges actually have over life? I should be allowed to
research this topic because it is a good answer to know for both sides. Both sides being the
judges giving to verdicts and the civilians receiving them. I hope to find out just how binding A
judge's role is based on several different statements of people that are judges, work with judges,
or are familiar with the law field. Through my research I hope to obtain knowledge that will be
helpful in being a lawyer and eventually with a lot of hard work a civil court judge.

Background:
I am interested in this topic because I want to be a guardian ad litem attorney and
eventually become a civil court judge. I have been interested in law since my parents separation I
completed an internship through my major last semester. I interned with Judge Melissa Emery. I
really enjoyed the internship but I question how much binding power a civil court judge actually
has. I do believe the most I can do is sentence a minor too DJJ not to extend their 21st birthday.

Not that this isn't a great deal but Criminal Court judges can sentence a person up to several Life
sentences with no chance of parole.

Significance:
This topic is important to know about because it is how our judicial system is ran. It is
also personally important to me because if I do become a judge I want to know how much
authority I actually have. Everything about our legal system is important because it is how each
person is expected to behave in society and how they are going to be punished if they do not do
so.

Description:
To conduct my research I plan on obtaining several interviews from people employed at
the courthouse or through the state. The internet will also be of great use and possibly some law
books if I can get access to any.

Methodology:
I will interview Judge Melissa Emery and her secretary, Judy Guyton. I will interview
Craig Hutchinson who is a Horry County police and a member of bomb squad also. I'm unsure
of all the questions I will ask them but I will ask for sure how long they have been involved in
the law field what their job is, their opinion on civil court judges, their experience with civil
court judges and their name and age. The questions will very slightly for each person to obtain
the needed information. Using the internet I will search civil court judge job description, the

power of judges, civil court and family judges. Using all of these processes I will obtain enough
information to answer the question of how much power a civil court judge actually has.

Problems:
I anticipate having trouble finding information on the web about the power judges hold.
This is almost more of an opinion than fact topic. I believe there will be a lot of opinions on the
web about what people personally think more so than facts about what is so. I will have to be
more descriptive and detailed with my search choices and be careful of the website that I use. I
might have issues setting up an interview with the following people i plan to interview and
working it around my busy schedule. This is going to be a very hard point to find and prove but I
plan to research until I find the answers to this mystery