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Man Bites Dog

Posted in Judges on Sunday February 07 2010 @ 7:51pm

...that's how rare it is to find a judge who is not only interested in court administration, but who also wants to be a court administrator.

If approved, that's exactly what will happen to former Judge Joseph J. Musto of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. We're impressed; many judges and court administrators can't even be in the same room together.

See the somewhat ambitious Former Judge Musto Named County Court Administrator, Michael R. Sisak, Citizens Voice (January 28, 2010).

What's Right with Kansas

Posted in Administration on Sunday February 07 2010 @ 7:31pm

We're soooooo tired of hearing about furloughs and closings, so this happy news from Kansas was most welcome. A combination of federal stimulus money plus state legislative funding is keeping Kansas courts open.

See Furloughs Deferred; Quick Action Needed from Lawmakers, Governor, Bobbi Mlynar, Emporia Gazette (February 5, 2010), and cross your fingers that the money comes through. Closed courts don't do anyone much good.

Justice League

Posted in Judges on Sunday January 31 2010 @ 9:51am

Justices were all over the media this week --

Justice Alito channeled Theda Bara, making headlines simply by moving his lips! Lyle Denniston of SCOTUSblog is on the case.

Dahlia Lithwick considers the judicial mind in Ghosts in the Machine: What Happens when Justices Get Personal, Slate (January 30, 2010).

The Israeli Chief Justice was the target of a sneaker-tossing critic. See Attacker Hits Israeli Chief Justice with Sneaker, Aron Heller, AP/Washington Post (January 27, 2010).

Today's Frazz cites Justice Potter Stewart in a way that most Sunday comics do not (which is to say, at all).

Wanted: Guinea Pig Court

Posted in Wanted on Sunday January 31 2010 @ 9:19am

UC Davis law professor Donna Shestowsky is looking for a few good courts. She writes My research team at the University of California is preparing to conduct a major study, funded by the National Science Foundation, on how litigants choose between various court procedures (arbitration, mediation, and trial).

To that end, the team needs courts to study. They are just one court short of a sample (is that like being a few sandwiches short of a picnic?) and need your help. The criteria is:

The court is a state trial court where general civil matters are heard (i.e., contract, torts, malpractice, etc.). (They do not want to study people filing in specialized courts such as family court, bankruptcy court, etc.) The county in which the court has jurisdiction should ideally have at least 100,000 residents.

In this court, trial, court-sponsored mediation and court-sponsored arbitration must be offered for the very same type of case. For example, some courts offer arbitration for cases worth $50,000 or more, and mediation for smaller dollar values. Other courts, for example, send property cases to arbitration and all other cases to mediation. In both of these kinds of courts, parties are funneled to a particular form of ADR. For this study, researchers seek courts offering the same case/issue type and same amount in controversy the opportunity to go to mediation or arbitration.

Parties actually have a choice between mediation and arbitration. Because the researchers are trying to study how litigants choose between procedures, if judges can require the party to do one or the other, that court would not meet the study's requirements. If the court calls the program mandatory, that also would not meet researchers' needs unless parties may choose between mediation or arbitration. If the court has an opt-out program whereby the court says they must use mediation or arbitration, but a party can veto the choice, the court would meet the criteria.

Courts must actually offer both arbitration and mediation themselves. That is, either they have a staff of at least 5 arbitrators or mediators or the court maintains a roster of approved mediators/arbitrators. A court that simply recommends, advises, or encourages a process but does not also have the staff (or roster) to handle cases would not meet the researchers' criteria.

Researchers need party names and contact information for both defendants and plaintiffs, as well as case type and amount in controversy filed in the previous 2-3 weeks of the start of the study for 3 consecutive months. The researchers can offer a small stipend from the grant to fund this type of data collection.

Researchers need to know when a case closes within 2 weeks of the trial outcome, settlement/agreement, or dismissal.

Donna says the study is the very first large-scale study of its kind and we expect it will be often cited and widely read by lawyers, judges, academics and court personnel.

To participate please contact Donna at 530-754-5693 or e-mail dshest ucdavis.edu. The court must be chosen by the end of Februrary, 2010, so please no more contacts after that time.

At the Movies

Posted in Hype on Friday January 29 2010 @ 7:14am

What happens to English majors who go to law school? They write fun books (some even -- gasp! -- become bloggers).

One such book is Movie Therapy for Law Students (and Pre-Law, Paralegal, and Related Majors), by Maine lawyer Sonia Buck.

The book reads like a study guide outline -- which is exactly what it is, albeit in a more entertaining form. For each film, there is a synopsis, analysis of legal issues grouped by topic (say, witness testimony and judicial notice under the evidence heading), exam tips, and Legal Briefs & Movie Extras, which gives backstory, fun facts, etc. Buck includes study tips for law school exams as well as for the LSATs.

Buck also gives advice on what to do during the admittedly boring portions of some of these films: To avoid sheer boredom while waiting for trial [in Inherit the Wind], I recommend watching this movie while engaging in some secondary task (such as knitting, sewing, exercising, cooking, cleaning, emailing, texting, Facebooking, on-line shopping, etc.).

Fun for listophiles, the films are indexed in a variety of ways: chronologically (which is how the chapters flow), but are also sorted by legal topic and alphabetically. Pauly Shore's Jury Duty is blessedly absent from each and every list.

This would make a fantastic teaching tool or law student movie club agenda. Pick a film to watch together, then go over the notes and discuss amongst yourselves. Buck asks some good questions, such as How many ethical violations can you find by how many attorneys in Liar Liar? Best to share this book and its ideas with fellow students -- your non-legal friends and family might not appreciate the fun of pointing out every legal misstep made by Jim Carrey.

Al Nye the Lawyer Guy also has a review.

We'd love to see a squeakquel... -- um, make that sequel -- for legal tv shows.

KO'd

Posted in Criminal on Thursday January 14 2010 @ 9:33pm

We enjoy Kimball Perry's You are there!!! approach, and it works well for this story: Ex-Boxing Champ Picks Prison over Rehab, Cincinnati Enquirer (January 14, 2010). The story includes a clip of Tubbs in better (?) times.

The item shows that rehab is not the same as a slap on the wrist -- if it were, there would be no drug addicts in prison.

And, it illustrates what can only be called judicial frustration.

p.s. Was there ever a better anti-drug anthem than White Lines (Don't Do It)? (Seen here with puppets!)

Fun-o-Rama

Posted in Hype on Thursday January 14 2010 @ 7:07pm

Here's some fun (we think) stuff to do:

Name all the SCOTUS Justices (including Chiefs) from all time! Brought to you by famed time-waster, sporcle.

Learn the FRE hearsay exceptions from singing Lego people. What a shame that YouTube wasn't around when we were in law school.

Ponder life before Idol, and be sure to check out a pre-Fame rockin' mini Irene Cara!

For the techies among us, Build a Buzzword Bingo Card in PHP. If you're at a loss for buzzwords, reuse some from BuzzWhack.

Play First Person Tetris. It's Friday (well, almost).

Have a wonderfully long weekend!

New Year, New Job

Posted in Wanted on Sunday January 10 2010 @ 8:21pm

Overwhelmed by careerbuilder.com? Tired of getting scammed by craigslist? Is using monster.com too much like taking a sip of water from a fire hydrant?

If you're looking for a job, best of luck to ya. We've been there and it's not easy. Persevere, and take a look-see here:

ABA: The American Bar Association always has a ton of classifieds in their numerous publications, but they also post their own job announcements for positions in Chicago, DC, and around the world. These are not just for attorneys -- office staff, analysts, editors/writers, membership/association services, techies, and others need apply.

Chronicle of Higher Education: Academics and whackademics alike can search for faculty, administrative, research, and other positions at institutions of higher learning.

CSG: The Council of State Governments offers interesting policy work from locations in California, DC, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, and New York. Its jobs page includes both CSG and related employment opportunities elsewhere.

Feds: The federal government posts jobs at usajobs.gov. The search engine is pretty handy (we used it ourselves many times), and the range of jobs -- legal, medical, technical, sciences, engineering, etc. -- is incredible. All federal jobs are posted here, and many federal-related sites will direct viewers to usajobs rather than post their own jobs on their own site.

Fine Arts Fund: Arts-related jobs in and around Cincinnati. If this sounds like a crazy path for law- and court-based employees, guess again. Those office, organizational, and grant-writing skills, plus a strong dose of community-mindedness, are all transferable to the arts field (among others).

NCSC: The National Center for State Courts, with offices in DC, Williamsburg, and Denver, plus international outposts, posts their job announcements here. The Center also maintains a list of job postings from the courts, and houses state-by-state links to state and state court employment/HR pages.

NCSL: The National Council of State Legislatures has a clearinghouse of jobs in state legislatures. It includes jobs in states, with NCSL itself (which has offices in Denver and DC), and related employment postings from other places.

NLADA: The National Legal Aid & Defender Association posts jobs from across the country for attorneys, legal office staff, paralegals, program coordinators, etc.

Hang in there!

Finding Info

Posted in Hype on Thursday January 07 2010 @ 6:40pm

It's been awhile since we've been in the game but still, we are nostalgic when we happen across particularly good ways to find things. In the spirit of sharing (and passable html skills!), they are, in alphabetical (what else?) order:

be Spacific: Sabrina Pacifici (her real name, how awesome!) is a librarian and walking library of legal tech issues to boot. As such, you can bet her tags are more meticulously maintained than Felix Unger's sock drawer.

Delaware Lawyers Weekly Search: Suppose you have a very favorite legal news reporter/author. Suppose you have a favorite Big Fat Legal Press (not meaning to sound like something that might happen in a football game there, it just came out that way). Or maybe you're looking for an opinion by a particular judge (say, Veasey) about a particular topic (say, ADR) --- up pops Pafri Holding AB v. Mirror Image Internet, Inc.! Subscription-only hampers the results but the database is pretty cool.

The beloved GAO: It's been too long since we last sang the praises of the GAO. (Hmm, Tom, can we make up a GAO song? Or did we already? Or did I just wish we did?) Everything you wanted to know about the government but were afraid to ask!

NORC: Nothing's cooler than Chicago, the headquarters of the National Opinion Research Council. Multidiscplinary fun, publications, and a host of issues -- from arts & humanities to technology -- make NORC a useful and readable resource.

RSI Resource Center: RSI aims to please. Susan & Co. even changed their name from the somewhat unwieldy CAADRS to the simpler RSI. Their database of ADR resources is one of the best around. It's searchable by keyword; sortable by title, author, etc.; can be restricted by resource type, field, case type, process type, topic, state/federal. court type, country, etc.; and each result includes a mini abstract hand-written just for you by research staff (read: Jen).

Happy hunting!

Congrats

Posted in Hype on Wednesday January 06 2010 @ 7:01pm

Kudos all around, especially to...

Local (to us) lawyer John Nalbandian, who was nominated to the SJI board by President Obama.

Washington state Justice Barbara Madsen, who will be sworn in as chief next Monday.

The Nevada judiciary, for adding mediators to its foreclosure mediation program roster.

Spectators jailed for contempt, who just had their records expunged. The 32 people were sanctioned for screaming during a rape trial. The state supreme court unanimously ordered the expungement, yet seemed to understand the trial judge's position that things just got out of hand.

Philadelphia courts, which will try some innovative reforms under State Supreme Court Chief Justice Castille.

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