Archive for April, 2011
Southern Africa: Birthplace of human language? Tom Freeland posts from the NYT about playing politics with federal judicial nominations. “This is a wonderful country, where anybody can sue for anything, even when the allegations are over 70 years old.” So did the Yankees steal their logo? Biodegradable burial – UK style. And for the US, too. [ READ MORE ]
Not long ago an attorney asked to be allowed surrebuttal. I refused the request and quipped that surrebuttal had been deep-sixed by the MRCP. I was wrong. About the MRCP, anyway. Actually, the MRCP does not even mention surrebuttal. I do remember a discussion about surrebuttal in the various seminars we had around 1982-3 in preparation [ READ MORE ]
I came across a gem of an opinion rendered by Chancellor Shannon Clark in those pre-MRCP days when the concept of equitable distribution was unknown in Mississippi divorce law, and chancellors rendered opinions unencumbered by all of the factors that weigh down our opinions nowadays. Judge Clark had a wry sense of humor, and had a [ READ MORE ]
One of the most frustrating aspects of litigation is the gamesmanship that many lawyers employ in discovery. If you’ve practiced even a short time, you are acquainted with the repertoire: Late or no answers; failure to supplement; supplementation on the eve of trial; all-encompassing objections; evasive answers; and on and on. Philip Thomas blogged about the COA’s [ READ MORE ]
In a post aptly entitled Intestinal Fortitude, the blog Mocking Words enlightens us about two recent cases in which various surprising items were discovered in cavity searches of a woman in Scranton, PA and a man in Sarasota, FL. As the term “cavity” implies, the searches involved rather intimate internal regions of the body accessible only [ READ MORE ]
It’s not very good poetry, but this sonnet does reflect a particular point of view of the insurance defense lawyer. Who’s bugging you? Here’s a piece on how to tell if your car, home or phone is bugged. BP says that the spill is stopped and everything is hunky-dory in the gulf. So we can relax, right? [ READ MORE ]
Every now and then a case comes tumbling down from the appellate stratosphere that is remarkable not so much for the law of that particular case, but rather for the cascade of legal nuggets it unearths that one can mine and tuck away for future profitable use. Such is Jernigan v. Young, handed down by the COA on April [ READ MORE ]
If you have practiced family law any amount of time, you will marvel at the ingenuity of parents and other family members in devising ways to warp, hurt, demoralize and destroy children. Here are some of the most effective: Use the children as pawns. Trash the non-custodial parent’s mail to the child, or hide birthday or [ READ MORE ]
Always accompany the executor, administrator, guardian or conservator to the bank or other financial institution to open the estate account. That way you can make sure that the funds are properly deposited into a restricted account, and that the fiduciary does what she is supposed to do. Always ask that a duplicate bank statement be [ READ MORE ]
One of the vexing questions in child support cases is how to treat seasonal variations in income. Let’s say your client is a salesman who brings home only $2,000 per month eleven months out of the year. Every December, however, he receives a bonus that has averaged $10,000 a year over the past ten years. [ READ MORE ]
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