tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-148005262024-08-30T04:28:30.525-04:00OBSERVATIONS, THOUGHTS, OCCASIONAL RANTS, THINGS I FIND INTERESTING AND ANYTHING ELSE THAT I FEEL MOVED TO SHARE OR COMMENT ON - SOMETIMES THEY MAY EVEN INVOLVE THE LAW, LAWYERS, OR THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger353125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14800526.post-10360157498890469442009-08-17T17:18:00.008-04:002009-09-02T21:48:08.886-04:00

The fact that some of my blogging contemporaries such as Skelly at A&C and Feddie at SA are hanging it up have forced me to confront the fact that I have been largely neglecting this blog for the past year or so. Indeed, the fact that Ken had to point out that they were gone shows just how much I have been away from the blogosphere lately.The reality that is staring me in the face is that I

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14800526.post-957163416941746932009-07-17T20:18:00.005-04:002009-08-03T21:01:50.063-04:00

It's now official. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland will now have themselves a brand new Supreme Court.On October 1, 2009, the new Supreme Court of the United Kingdom will replace the House of Lords as the highest court of appeal for Great Britain and the 12 "Law Lords" will then become justices.The new Supreme Court will hear appeals from the Court of Appeal of England

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14800526.post-75190294436745452312009-07-14T15:11:00.004-04:002009-07-14T15:35:54.295-04:00

Apparently the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is OK with law firms footing the bill for judges' law clerks but personally I find it very troubling, both ethically and practically. The potential conflict of interest when a judge is involved in a case that also involves the law firm paying the salary of the judge's clerk's is obvious but perhaps less so is the fact that I, for one, would probably

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14800526.post-31259584214304200172009-07-11T16:47:00.003-04:002009-07-11T16:54:11.866-04:00

When you think of things to be thankful for, "lizard tattoo on the penis" probably does not immediately leap to mind but it ought to be at the top of this guy's list since it probably kept him out of prison for a long time.

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14800526.post-62032055442736394312009-07-10T18:05:00.002-04:002009-07-10T18:12:58.187-04:00

Heaven forbid that a lawyer be permitted to project "an air of unsophisticated honesty" to a jury.Boing Boing Via Instapundit.

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14800526.post-184034228152494362009-07-06T16:26:00.005-04:002009-07-06T16:49:05.500-04:00

How about a country ( a British possession no less) where all of the judges are feuding with each other and where they all have either been "arrested, suspended or mired in controversy?" And the judiciary isn't the only disfunctional branch of the government - the police chief was fired for being involved in a burglary of the newspaper office but has since been exonerated and is now suing (

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14800526.post-63614521689200223602009-04-29T21:57:00.000-04:002009-04-29T22:00:10.487-04:00

Alright, I'll admit that while technically correct, that headline up there is a little misleading. It actually refers to these residents of Sarasota who don't like the idea of mixing brown sand with white sand on their beaches. I guess you could call them sand bigots.

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14800526.post-36882928559262913932009-04-22T17:43:00.000-04:002009-04-22T17:43:00.388-04:00

I think that perhaps this judge has taken the idea a little too literally.

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14800526.post-22188571875980091602009-04-16T23:22:00.003-04:002009-04-16T23:31:09.334-04:00

Watching Perry Mason on TV back in the late 1950's and early 1960's was a major influence on me and a big reason why I wound up in this profession. Oh, the shame of it!

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14800526.post-37761402265489020152009-04-13T22:14:00.005-04:002009-04-13T22:31:21.024-04:00

Take a bunch of men. Put them in a single room in a Texas motel. Add some high density flatulence and the result is silent but (almost) deadly.

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14800526.post-88567794130041299092009-04-11T18:00:00.003-04:002009-04-11T18:06:18.539-04:00

No time machine should be without one of these (click on the image to zoom in).Via Gizmodo.

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14800526.post-79789677937203320202009-04-10T10:02:00.004-04:002009-04-22T16:01:54.063-04:00

The really sad part is that we now find this both unsurprising and funny.

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14800526.post-83562486374090418212009-04-08T21:48:00.003-04:002009-04-08T22:06:58.173-04:00

It's Boston, not Chicago and it's 2009 not 1931, so isn't quite deja vu all over again and incidentally, the Capone in question happens to be a restaurant instead of a gangster but what the hell, it got your attention, didn't it?In other news from Boston, apparently they have trouble learning English there, but the rest of the country already knew that.

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14800526.post-83949031132666680922009-03-17T20:42:00.004-04:002009-03-17T21:05:38.704-04:00

Who didn't see this coming?The New York Times reports that a federal judge had to declare a mistrial in a drug case when he found out that nine jurors were using their iPhones, Blackberrys and other internet-enabled cell phones to do their own research on the case.With the jurors Twittering and posting their thoughts to Facebook, it is only a matter of time before criminal defendants figure out

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14800526.post-18072752458897227142009-03-15T11:16:00.002-04:002009-03-15T11:59:34.739-04:00

The AP reports that an Ohio court will no longer accept case filings unless you bring your own paper because it can't afford to buy any.No word on whether this applies to the courthouse restrooms as well.

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14800526.post-90661105118826677742009-03-07T19:52:00.003-05:002009-03-07T20:01:08.516-05:00

Of course these days we are throwing around the word "trillion" in front of the word "dollars" like we actually appreciate the difference. Here is a good illustration.Now that's what I call real money!

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14800526.post-89279915168145491422009-02-28T12:09:00.004-05:002009-02-28T12:37:49.289-05:00

A four year court fight that has yet to be resolved and has cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees would not be news if we were talking about an antitrust case or a patent fight, but a lawsuit over rice?It seems that a Chinese restaurant is paying a premium for the exclusive right to sell white rice in a Rhode Island food court and wants the Indian restaurant in the mall to stop

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14800526.post-89217944880960106622009-02-16T11:56:00.002-05:002009-02-16T11:58:44.009-05:00

It took 82 years but finally someone noticed that George Washington is misquoted on the pediment of what, thanks to Hollywood, is the most recognized courthouse in the world.Carved over the columns of the New York Supreme Court's Manhattan courthouse built in 1927, are the words "The true administration of justice is the firmest pillar of good government." What Washington actually wrote in a

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14800526.post-72381869553017358762009-02-04T22:18:00.003-05:002009-02-04T22:33:00.712-05:00

The BBC reports that Sussex police are reopening the investigation of the disappearance of 16 year old Emma Alice Smith, who was last seen riding her bicycle 83 years ago, in 1926.With the typical Bristish knack for understatement, a police official observed that, "Given the years which have passed this is inevitably a difficult task."Talk about a cold case!

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14800526.post-68938931508469803892009-02-04T22:07:00.001-05:002009-02-04T22:18:28.163-05:00

80 year old Mary Feeny of Indianapolis gave us a hint when, fresh from her hairdresser, she backed backed out her parking spot destroying a gas meter in the process and then on through the wall of a building housing an architectural firm. In an apparent effort to extricate her vehicle from the architect's waiting room, Ms. Feeny reversed course thereby wiping out a bush and striking four other

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14800526.post-38083303738676811892009-01-31T02:18:00.003-05:002009-01-31T19:34:04.731-05:00

I teach a course on Constitutional Law as an adjunct professor at a nearby law school and during class recently, we had a lengthy discussion about to what extent the United States Constitution was operating the way the framers intended. I did not want things to degenerate into a partisan debate (I was only partially successful) nor did I want them to scrap the existing document and start over or

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14800526.post-27311971883932430932009-01-23T14:17:00.000-05:002009-01-23T14:17:01.163-05:00

This case has some age on it but I think it is still worth a blog post.In a convoluted libel case, the appellant argued on appeal that the appellee's trial counsel delivered a prejudicial and inflammatory closing argument. But the bigger problem was that the argument—which invoked Jesus Christ, Julius Caesar, and the Mennonites— was about as wrong on the facts as you can get. Here’s an excerpt:"

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14800526.post-58649388641361146782009-01-12T22:42:00.002-05:002009-01-12T22:46:27.257-05:00

The Mad Law Professor asks the question. Will the new administration's Solicitor General, current Harvard Law School Dean Elena Kagan, break with the tradition of wearing a morning coat when appearing to argue cases in the Supreme Court of the United States?Since she is the first woman to hold the post, I doubt that the formal ware worn by men since before the turn of the previous century, which

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14800526.post-29084422043314537022008-12-23T16:44:00.001-05:002008-12-23T17:20:05.513-05:00

Although whoever wrote this has an obvious rightward tilt, and even though I am pretty "green" when it comes to cars and houses, with all that's going on in Detroit and Washington these days, this is just too funny not to share.It's in the way you dress. The way you boogie down. The way you sign your unemployment check. You're a man who likes to do things your own way. And on those special

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14800526.post-4835328275026349672008-12-17T21:47:00.003-05:002008-12-24T19:53:29.195-05:00

Professor Carl Tobias of the University of Richmond Law School offers advice to President-elect Obama here about the type of appellate judges he should appoint during his term. Professor Tobias' advice can be summed up in two words - "law professors."Implicit in the good professor's piece is the clear suggestion that the federal courts of appeal (presumably including the Supreme Court) cannot

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2