Legal Writing Sample

INTEROFFICE MEMORANDUM OF LAW

TO:

FROM:

RE: John Bally and Medical Collections Corporation

DATE:

ISSUES

Under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-90, did John Bally receive any money or goods in the course of his employment while exercising a fiduciary duty for Medical Collections Corporation (MCC) when: (1) Bally was a collections employee for MCC; (2) Bally’s duties included calling debtors to encourage them to pay their medical bills; (3) Bally called Ms. Jennings to encourage her to pay her medical bill; (3) During the collections call, Ms. Jennings proposed that Bally take her first monthly payment to help pay for his wife’s surgery; (4) Bally received the first monthly payment at his house; and (5) Ms. Jennings made the check payable to Bally in care of?

Under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-90, did John Bally fraudulently or knowingly and willfully misapply or convert to his own use any money, goods or other chattels, belonging to MCC when: (1) Ms. Jennings assured Bally that she was voluntarily giving him the money through the monthly arrangement set up with MCC; (2) Bally had no trouble cashing the check and used Ms. Jennings’s first payment towards his wife’s surgery; and (3) Bally credited Ms. Jennings's collections account in the computer for the amount of the first check, which went to him and not MCC?

FACTS

Bally was a collections employee for Medical Collections Corporation (MCC) in North Carolina. Bally’s duties included calling debtors to encourage them to pay their medical bills. If the debtor could not make a full payment, Bally attempted to set up a payment plan whereby the debtor would give a checking account and agree to automatic debits from the account once per month. The first payment had to be by paper check.

On December 5, 2008, Bally called Laura Jennings because she owed $15,000 to MCC. Ms. Jennings agreed to make monthly payments to MCC. Upon hearing Bally’s personal dilemma, she proposed that he take her first...