Ringing in the New: What to Watch in 2009

Posted in Truth Is Stranger Than (Legal) Fiction! on Thursday January 01 2009 @ 7:08pm

No matter what you dropped from a tall building, we hope everyone is having a safe and happy New Year!

We are spending the holidays at a remote Amish outpost in the foothills where we take army showers, hike through woods to get the local newspaper, have a clear view of the night sky (Venus and the moon are doing some beautiful things), and only have access Facebook, Sporcle, and 600 satelite tv channels. We have barely had enough online time to check our stats -- peeked often enough to notice that several dear readers found court-o-rama by using the keyword "marijuana." Perhaps we should start using the term "pork rinds" more frequently.

To proceed with more things people probably aren't looking for, here are some items to watch in 2009:

• O.J.'s Appeal: Remember that prosecutor in Louisiana who asked the jury to convict the defendant because O.J. got away? Kind of like "win one for the Juice." In 2008, another prosecutor did just that -- only this time, the defendant really was O.J. Simpson. Again with the jury problems! Look forward to exciting procedural and substantive debates about race and juries.
• Caylee's Case: The small body of Caylee Anthony has been found, just as people expected it would. Duct tape and other clues will make this an easy case, sadly similar to child-abuse cases around the country. The difference? A bad mom. A mom who wasn't just at the end of her rope (where we all find ourselves sometimes), but who appeared less than concerned about her child's disappearance. When the case comes up for trial this spring, we will hear more about young mothers who enter wet t-shirt contests than about how to detect and prevent child abuse. Wet t-shirt contests are much more fun to think about than suffering and death, according to media reports.
• Is there a test that actually measures legal success? Whether you're upset that your scores and grades don't match, or pleased that you've managed to prove the testing world wrong, you will be interested to know about a new study out of Berkeley finding tests other than the LSAT do a better job predicting certain lawyer skill sets. Thanks to Andrea Schneider at the ADRProf Blog for passing this on.
• A plaintiff used Facebook to serve defendants who fled the jurisdiction. We may see more of this -- at least in Australia, where it worked. Thanks to Jim (who else?)!

Thanks to everyone who supported court-o-rama during our first year! It's hard to believe that our first post was over a year ago! We look forward to another entire year of court-related fun.

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