A 9th Circuit Federal Appeals Court on Friday reduced the verdict against ExxonMobil for its 1989 Prince Williams Sound oil spill which dumped eleven million gallons of crude oil along 1500 miles of shoreline. The original $5 Billion dollar award was reduced by the court to $2.5 Billion dollars in a 2 – 1 opinion. In 1994 an Alaska jury awarded the original verdict on behalf of some 34,000 fisherman who had been damaged by the spill. An appeal to…
Saddam Hussein was hanged today. I know the vast majority of people cheered the hanging, but I don’t agree with the state killing people for their crimes, even when it is a brutal dictator like Saddam. I know that is an unpopular view with most people and that the majority of Americans agree with capital punishment, but I believe it should be abolished and punishment of life in prison without possibility of parole substituted in its place. It is true…
Newspapers in Milan, Italy, reported this last week, that tenor Roberto Alagna was singing an aria in Zeffirelli’s "Aida" at the world famous opera house, La Scala. There were many prominent people in the full house. However, he abruptly stopped singing, glared at the audience and left the stage when boos and whistles from the top gallery area began as he sang. His second had to rush on stage, wearing jeans, to finish the performance in his place. Afterwords Alagna…
The Seattle PI reports that plaintiff’s attorney Roxanne Conlin started presenting the class action case against Microsoft by showing the jury a 1998 deposition video of CEO Bill Gates taken by a Department of Justice lawyer in an earlier lawsuit against Microsoft. The article reports she plans to show all ten hours of the video to the jury because Gates made a poor impression during his deposition. Usually, showing video testimony to a jury for any length of time bores…
Two states had proposed constitutional amendments on the ballot which had drastic provisions regarding the judiciary. Colorado’s proposal would have fixed a maximum limit on the term of judges, but was defeated by the voters. South Dakota’s proposed change would have made judges subject to criminal charges or lawsuits by people who believed their legal rights had been violated by judges decisions. If adopted, the law would even apply to decisions made before it was voted on – retroactively. Judges…
In 1791 the 5th Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified. It provided that “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed…and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the…
Elliott Wilcox publishes a newsletter, Trial tips Newsletter which has helpful advice and information for trial lawyers. I came across it while searching for some information on an article I was writing about trial. It’s worth looking at in my opinion. For plaintiff trial lawyers interested in improving their skills, Gerry Spence’s Spence Trial College is as good as it gets. The regional three day seminars are excellent as well. I’m very proud to have been invited to teach at…
There are times when I read about a current events like the recent suspension of constitutional civil rights in this country that make me think of the 1989 movie, A Dry White Season. In the movie, Ben du Toit, played by Donald Sutherland, is an Afrikaner school teacher who goes to the offices of a human rights lawyer, Ian Mackenzie, played by Marlon Brando. He wants the lawyer’s help in demanding a formal inquest into the murder by the police…
Gustav Klimt’s 1907 portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer sold at auction in New York in June of 2006 for $135 Million dollars. This exceeded the previous sale of Pablo Picasso’s painting Boy with a Pipe which sold for $104 Million earlier in 2006 and Vincent Van Gogh’s painting Portrait of Dr. Gachet which sold for $83 Million in 1983. If oil paintings are worth multi millions of dollars because they are unique and irreplaceable, what are unique and irreplaceable human beings…
A great deal of attention has been paid in recent months by advertising and marketing companies to a concept advocated by Dr. Clotair Rapaille (pronounced “rah-pie”), a French born psychologist-turned-marketing consultant. The objective is to discover a message which will trigger instinctive actions at an unconscious level and motivate the person to buy the product. To understand his theory we need to look at the human brain.According to the triune brain theory developed by Dr. Paul MacLean, Chief of Brain…
