GERRY SPENCE AND PAUL LUVERA DVD
Gerry and I have donated the proceeds of the sale of this DVD to the Washington State Administration of Justice (formerly the Washington State Trial Lawyer's Association) and the Spence Trial College.
RUDE BEHAVIOR BY JUSTICE SAM ALITO
How should Americans and, in particular, lawyers, react to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Alito shaking his head and clearly mouthing the words "It’s not true" during the State of the Union Address by the President of the United States? It happened when the President said "With all due deference to separation of powers, last week, the Supreme Court reversed a century of law that I believe will open the floodgates for special interests….." Suppose you and I were in the…
IMAGES FROM THE ANNUAL TRIAL LAWYERS CONVENTION
Here are some shots from the annual Washington State Association for Justice (formerly Washington State Trial Lawyer's Association) annual convention. Wyoming trial attorney Gerry Spence and I conducted a seminar at the meeting. The photos were taken by one of the most talented photographers around, Carl Murray of Seattle Photography (www.seattlephotography.com)
THE NINE BY JEFFERY TOOBIN – OUR SUPREME COURT IN ACTION
I’ve read a book about the U.S. Supreme court, The Nine by Jeffrey Toobin. It is a very well written and interesting book about the justice’s on the court. Frankly, I came away from the reading thinking how our highest court has become an embarrassment to the legal system. It was intended to be an equal branch of the American system with the legislative and executive. It was supposed to be an objective branch whose role primarily was to require…
MELVIN M. BELLI – THE KING OF TORTS
On July 9, 1998 Melvin Mouron Belli, "The King of Torts," died in his San Francisco home of pancreatic cancer. He was 88 years old. He was survived by his fifth wife, three sons and three daughters. I happened across a reference about Belli that reminded me what an enormous figure he was in the plaintiff’s bar for so very many years. I decided to review some highlights in this admittedly over long post, but given the extraordinary figure he…
WAITING FOR THE JURY
Our jury has been deliberating on our case for 3.5 days and comes Monday to resume deliberations. It is the most difficult part of a trial. But, perhaps an even more difficult part of a trial is the period between their walking out of the jury room to disclose their verdict. You search their faces to see if you can read the expression. If they are sullen looking, won’t look at you or your client and some appear to have…
Trial Update
We’ve finished our fourth week and start the 5th week of trial Monday. We’ve already lost a couple of jurors for different reasons and are into our alternates. I expect the trial to finish this week. I had the pleasure of cross examining the CEO of the defendant corporation last Friday. A most interesting experience. I thought for awhile it was going to be a scene from the movie A Few Good Men where the witness finally has had enough…
JUDICIAL BEHAVIOR AND JUSTICE ANTONIN SCALIA
In reading my Bible this morning I read the following passage: "Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless. (Isaiah 10:1) It made me think about the gutless legislators who support unjust laws which they know are improper because they want to be re-elected or because they have accepted financial support…
Federal Judges Discipline Behind Closed Doors
In May of 2004, the late Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist created a panel to review how judicial misconduct complaints were being handled and added this comment: to "see if there are any real problems to have a committee look into." The committee was to report directly to the Chief Justice. The committee operates within the Judicial Conference of the United States which is the federal judiciary’s policy making body. It has been reviewing proposals to change the present secretive…
Washington’s Highest Court Condones Political Lies
Has our State’s highest court condoned political lies or did it merely up hold constitutional free speech? The Washington State Supreme court in a 5 to 4 decision has recently made the national news by it’s ruling that political lies told about an opponent in a political campaign are protected speech. Even though the lies were deliberate, malicious and false, the court held the lies were speech protected by the First Amendment. It overturned a law which gave the Public…