Latest Posts

For the Want of a Key

Posted in Administration on Friday May 09 2008 @ 8:35am

The Boston Globe's Jonathan Saltzman always has his finger on the pulse of the Massachusetts courts. This week is no exception.

See Courthouse Feud Erupts over Bathroom Key, Jonathan Saltzman, Boston Globe (May 9, 2008).

But the prosecutor claims the dispute is not a "feud" and that it is not simply over a key. Rather, she says the criminal investigation is underway to determine whether court security in search of a bathroom key unlawfully entered her locked office.

What this court needs is not involvement from the state supreme court, but an unlocked bathroom. If it must be locked, just leave the key under the mat. Or, forgo locks altogether in favor of pay toilets.

A Sip of COLA for NY Court Employees

Posted in Administration on Thursday May 08 2008 @ 7:50pm

In the private sector (so we hear) getting a 6% raise is what they do when they're too lazy to fire you. In the public sector (as we well know) it's considered a great honor.

Guess how honored New York Unified Court System employees feel right now?

Their union just negotiated a 4-year agreement, retroactive to April 2007. The deal increases salaries, improves pay in some areas, enhances longevity bonuses (we don't quite know what these are, but it sounds like a euphemism for gray hairs -- "this light really brings out my longevity bonuses!"), improves payments to the Employee Benefit Fund and Labor-Management programs (?), and increases funding for body armor.

So, they may not be able to afford college for their kids, but at least they'll be bullet-proof!

The raise amounts to 3% per year (starting in 2007), with 4% in 2010. Basically, this equals a cost of living allowance (or COLA).

Employees making over $115K must wait until a judicial pay raise is enacted. Is this a carrot/stick approach to the much sought-after New York judicial salary increase? The carrot being the raise for these higher-paid employees, who, perhaps, wield more influence over key legislators in the judicial salary fight. This is entirely conjecture! Anyone who really knows something, please feel free to share.

See the union press release, and NY Court Employees Set to Get Contract Raises, Newsday (May 8, 2008).

French Skills Helpful but Not Required

Posted in International on Thursday May 08 2008 @ 1:35pm

Want to sit on the Supreme Court of Canada (aka Cour supreme du Canada)? You may or may not be required to be bilingual.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has tried to make bilingual skills a priority in replacing vacancies on the bench, but one former judge claims that this is not necessary.

For one thing, the amount of fluency is open to question. Should the person just be able to understand both English and French, or also be able to write opinions in both languages? Few sitting judges meet the latter standard.

Simultaneous translation is available (though, for anyone who's ever been simultaneously translated, it's hard to get used to). Documents can be translated, of course.

Such is the plight of unilingual anglophones. We can't decide whether to smother our pain with freshly-baked madeleines, drown them in Moosehead, or both. C'est la vie.

See Bilingualism Not a Priority for Top Court, Ex-Judge Says, Janice Tibbetts, The Gazette (May 8, 2008).

Those Crazy Canadians!

Posted in Family on Thursday May 08 2008 @ 1:22pm

And you thought you were having a bad day.

A judge has banned a divorcing couple (and we use that word loosely) from appearing before him in Ontario Superior Court.

The two were married for a year (one wonders how the union ever came to be) and, sadly, have an 8-year-old child. Between them, the pair have fought through 12 judges, just as many lawyers, 25 court orders, 2000 pages of filings, 3 contempt motions, and 1 suspended sentence.

First, the mother: she pulled the child out of school after the father attended a parent-teacher meeting, took the child to dozens of appointments trying to find evidence of emotional abuse by the father, has violated court orders at least 19 times, and has been convicted of contempt.

Oddly enough, the report says she works at a "wellness centre."

Now, the father: he has spent over $200,000 fighting support payments, and fought for a longer sentence for his ex-wife's contempt conviction.

The judge noted that the two "gorged on court resources as if the legal system were their private banquet table."

He also hoped that "some day, a wise person in a position of authority will realize that a court oflaw is not the best forum for deciding custody and access disputes, where principles of common sense masquerade as principles of law." Perhaps he is not aware of the court's family mediation services or the Ontario Association for Family Mediation, or does he think these groups need more teeth?

See Judge Bars Battling Parents from Court, Paul Waldie, Globe and Mail (May 8, 2008).

Veterans' Court Update

Posted in Criminal on Thursday May 08 2008 @ 8:56am

More news about Buffalo's Veterans' Court aired on Talk of the Nation yesterday.

Picking up on the earlier NPR story by Libby Lewis (who was also a guest), Mr. Conan spoke with a PTSD expert and others. Callers provided valuable insight from the vets' point of view.

Read/hear/post comments to How to Help Vets in Trouble with the Law, Talk of the Nation (May 7, 2008), and Old Problems, New Venue: Buffalo's Veterans' Court, court-o-rama (April 29, 2008).

We expect to see more courts like this, particularly in military areas such as eastern Virginia and southern California, and more of a focus on veterans by existing problem-solving courts.

We'd also like to see more awareness on the part of traffic courts, which seems like a likely place for PTSD sufferers to end up. Bridges, overpasses, viaducts, streets where drivers may encounter sudden noises, etc., are prime triggers for those still driving Iraq-combat-style.`

Legislatures, grantmakers, and other interested parties, take note: if you want to find problems, go to a problem-solving court. These courts operate to fill holes in the system. The courts are doing the best they can, but why not use them as the canary in the mine to identify shortcomings in social services, mental health, substance abuse treatment, veterans' services, etc.?

Insanity in Seattle

Posted in Criminal on Thursday May 08 2008 @ 8:40am

The man who killed one and wounded five when he shot up the Jewish Federation in Seattle believes he was on a mission from God, though we think God would be shocked to hear it.

An expert retained by defense counsel testified that the shooter, Naveed Haq, is bipolar. Receiving messages directly from God, believing he could bring peace to the Middle East through his violent actions, randomly giving out his Social Security number to the dispatcher after calling 911 to report his crime, and experiencing an inexplicable burst of hyperactivity -- all of these things, say the expert, amount to Haq's legal insanity.

Jurors heard this testimony this week. Next week they will hear from the prosecution witnesses, who are expected to say that Haq was sane enough to plan the attack and seemed normal to famiy members shortly before the rampage.

See Defense Psychiatrist Says Jewish Federation Suspect Was Psychotic, Tracy Johnson, Seattle Post-Intelligencer (May 6, 2008).

Thanks to Ron Kessler for alerting us to this case and story.

Yes, Virginia, There Is a Sanity Clause

Posted in Criminal on Wednesday May 07 2008 @ 3:04pm

We think we know crazy. Gnarls Barkley remembers when he lost his mind and asks, "Does that make me crazy?" Patsy Cline (and Willie Nelson) thought they were "crazy for feeling so lonely." Fine Young Cannibals blamed a woman: she drives me crazy.

But do we? Our legal system has its roots in the borderline ancient M'Naughten rule, but can't even agree on the proper spelling.

The NPR show Talk of the Nation, too, is struggling with sanity. Listen to Man Who Held Daughter Captive to Plead Insanity, Talk of the Nation (May 6, 2008).

Commentator Dahlia Lithwick seems to think that insanity pleas are limited to the Hinckleys, Dahmers, and Fritzls of the world; she needs to get out of DC more (or at least into some lower courts). (And OK, full disclosure, we admit to having Lithwick envy.) We've never seen good statistics on the frequency of insanity pleas; she cites numbers (less than 1%) but no source.

The public perception that someone could fake insanity and suddenly be running around loose is nicely debunked by Miss Dahlia.

Ouch! Neal Conan said defendants who successfully plea NGRI "get off."

Alan Dershowitz "believes in" the insanity defense. Again, he talks about extreme cases, citing a hypothetical Alzheimer's patient as a reason to preserve the defense in some form.

He noted the fine line between being competent to stand trial yet too insane to have committed the crime at the time. (This, he says, accounts for the low number of defendants using the defense; most insane people won't be competent to stand trial to begin with.) Dershowitz brings GBMI to the table, too: guilty but (or and) mentally ill. GBMI is an interesting fence-position between culpability and illness.

He makes the important point that pleading insanity will likely land a defendant in custody far longer than any prison term. One caller had a personal story about how this works (or doesn't) in Minnesota, where her schizophrenic brother (who was found unfit to stand trial) has been committed for at least a decade longer than he would have served time in prison, with little hope of being released by the 7-judge panel.

Professor Christopher Slobogin, who quite literally wrote the book on the insanity defense, advocated for a narrower application of the insanity defense.

Slobogin thinks the current test -- ability to appreciate the wrongfulness of the conduct, inability to control behavior -- is too broad. He would focus instead on the reasons for the conduct.

Callers ran the gamut, from a woman who didn't seem to grasp the concept of legal insanity, to a defense attorney from Virginia who felt the standard for competency to stand trial was far too high.

Congrats, in Five Words Or...

Posted in Hype on Tuesday May 06 2008 @ 11:34am

Oops, too many!

Congratulations to the ABA Journal on its Webby win!

Now they have to come up with a 5-word acceptance "speech." Haikuists and other fans of brevity, please help them out!

See The Webby People's Voice Award Goes to...ABA Journal, Edward A. Adams, ABA Journal (May 6, 2008).

Florida Budget Cuts: Not Just for Breakfast Anymore

Posted in Administration on Tuesday May 06 2008 @ 11:22am

Why, it was just a few years ago that Florida courts went from county to state funding.

Remember the drill? All court services had to scramble to categorize themselves, all hoping for the coveted "essential court services" status to guarantee state funding.

Meanwhile, the counties picked up the slack.

Now, the state is out of money (this is what happens, states, when you rely on property taxes and the housing market goes under). Guess who gets to picks up even more slack?

Counties!

The state will no longer pay for witness or juror fees. The money will now come from the clerk's office.

Bay County, for example, estimates that they will spend $50,000 annually paying jurors their $15 - 30/day. Don't look for a juror pay raise there any time soon.

But do counties have the money to cover these costs?

No more than the state does. The sinking housing market has affected counties, too. Again, an example from Bay County: whenever a deed was recorded, the recording department collected a 1% fee. Not only have there been far fewer deeds recorded lately, the state eliminated the fee.

See State Budget Cuts to Hit Court System Hard, Kristy Wolski, WJHG (May 6, 2008).

One Fine Day in Wisconsin

Posted in Criminal on Monday May 05 2008 @ 5:00pm

Access issues aside, here's yet another reason to avoid imposing fines, fees, and surcharges: they can get taken away with the stroke of a pen. Thus, organizations who depend on such income may have their cash flow cut off rather quickly.

Case in point: the Wisconsin legislature recently enacted a law prohibiting judges and prosecutors from requiring defendants to pay their fines to a specific organization. Groups such as Crime Stoppers and the clinically-disproven D.A.R.E. had come to rely on such funding.

Court officials seemed to agree that the practice should have been banned long ago. Indeed, a former d.a.* was found offering deals to defendants based on whether they "contributed" to such organizations.

See Law Limits Fines, Cuts Money Anti-Crime Groups Get, AP/Green Bay Press-Gazette (May 5, 2008); Fines Can't Go to Nonprofit and Anti-Crime Groups, Dee J. Hall, Wisconsin State Journal (May 5, 2008); and DA's Deals Let People Buy Way Out of Trouble, Dee J. Hall and Andy Hall, Wisconsin State Journal (July 12, 2003).

* Fun fact: the d.a. was Vince Biskupic, whose sister Joan reports on the Supreme Court for USA Today, and whose brother Steven was almost one of the ousted DOJ attorneys.

Next 10 Posts >>

court-o-rama.org

the least dangerous blog

Categories