Trial Advocacy
What Supreme Court Justices Do
The http://www.manhattan-institute.org/video/?c=101310MI has posted a speech by Justice Samuel Alito. He discusses the proper role of judges.
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Motions for Summary Judgment
Prof. Bradley Shannon has done a great job of covering civil procedure in his scholarship. His articles on Motions for Summary Judgment are well worth your time to read. They are short and stay on topic. He also has a great article on pleadings following the Twombly and Iqbal decisions by the Supreme Court.
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Orthogonal
Sometimes lawyers can get carried away with words. This appears to have been the case during oral arguments in Briscoe v. Virginia. MR. FRIEDMAN: I think that issue is entirely orthogonal to the issue here because the Commonwealth is acknowledging - CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS: I’m sorry. Entirely what? MR. FRIEDMAN: Orthogonal. Right angle. Unrelated....
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Parties Behaving Badly
Sometimes those in litigation get a little carried away. While such conduct should not be encouraged it does produce some rather interesting court orders. A judge in Ontario, Canada recently issued a 45 page opinion in a child custody dispute. From the tone of the opinion, it appears that all the parties involved were...
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Constitutional Interpretation
Recently, Ezra Klein appears to have made a misstatement regarding the binding nature of the Constitution. Ezra did raise a good point during his interview–embedded below–regarding the confusion that may arise when attempting to interpret the Constitution. In order to illustrate this point I have provided two sources below that demonstrate the various methods...
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Always Check Your Judge’s Background
As an advocate you must ensure your client gets a fair hearing. Part of that process is learning about the judge assigned to your case.
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The Caffeine Defense
Salon has an article on a Kentucky man who killed his wife and is claiming the caffeine defense. May I recommend the Chewbacca defense instead?
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