Download or read book The Lawyer Judge Bias in the American Legal System written by Benjamin H. Barton and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2010-12-31 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Virtually all American judges are former lawyers. This book argues that these lawyer-judges instinctively favor the legal profession in their decisions and that this bias has far-reaching and deleterious effects on American law. There are many reasons for this bias, some obvious and some subtle. Fundamentally, it occurs because - regardless of political affiliation, race, or gender - every American judge shares a single characteristic: a career as a lawyer. This shared background results in the lawyer-judge bias. The book begins with a theoretical explanation of why judges naturally favor the interests of the legal profession and follows with case law examples from diverse areas, including legal ethics, criminal procedure, constitutional law, torts, evidence, and the business of law. The book closes with a case study of the Enron fiasco, an argument that the lawyer-judge bias has contributed to the overweening complexity of American law, and suggests some possible solutions.
Download or read book Judging the Lawyers written by Ted Preston and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 412 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Almost everyone in the United States is familiar with criticisms of lawyers and their handling-or mishandling-of the civil justice system. The relationship between the American public and lawyers is vital, yet often misunderstood. What are we to make of the paradox of increasing dependence on attorneys and criticism of them to the point of disrespect? More importantly, do they really deserve this condemnation? In Judging the Lawyers: A Jury-Box View of the Case Against American Lawyers, author Ted Preston discusses the realities of lawyers' practices and their vast benefits to society to make his point that critical but balanced assessment of attorneys and the civil justice system is essential. Using a trial format that balances both sides of the argument, Judging the Lawyers is a vehicle for exploring the case for and against lawyers and for examining the causes of the tensions between the bar and the public. Preston invites you to stand in the position of a juror and gives you the opportunity to actively think through each issue. Judging the Lawyers can help you better understand lawyers and their operation of our civil justice system.
Download or read book The Fraternity written by John Fitzgerald Molloy and published by Paragon House Publishers. This book was released on 2004-08-25 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A former Chief Justice of the Court of Appeals for Arizona discusses his part in what he considers "collusion" as a lawyer, including discussions of cases in which he was professionally involved, and argues that American lawyers and judges have acted jointly to make the legal system progressively require the work of legal professionals, an outcome that has become possible by sanctifying the Constitution in a way that allows them to paint opposition to their decisions as sacreligious.
Download or read book Reflections on Judging written by Richard A. Posner and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2013-10-07 with total page 423 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Reflections on Judging, Richard Posner distills the experience of his thirty-one years as a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Surveying how the judiciary has changed since his 1981 appointment, he engages the issues at stake today, suggesting how lawyers should argue cases and judges decide them, how trials can be improved, and, most urgently, how to cope with the dizzying pace of technological advance that makes litigation ever more challenging to judges and lawyers. For Posner, legal formalism presents one of the main obstacles to tackling these problems. Formalist judges--most notably Justice Antonin Scalia--needlessly complicate the legal process by advocating "canons of constructions" (principles for interpreting statutes and the Constitution) that are confusing and self-contradictory. Posner calls instead for a renewed commitment to legal realism, whereby a good judge gathers facts, carefully considers context, and comes to a sensible conclusion that avoids inflicting collateral damage on other areas of the law. This, Posner believes, was the approach of the jurists he most admires and seeks to emulate: Oliver Wendell Holmes, Louis Brandeis, Benjamin Cardozo, Learned Hand, Robert Jackson, and Henry Friendly, and it is an approach that can best resolve our twenty-first-century legal disputes.
Download or read book Making Your Case written by Antonin Scalia and published by West Publishing Company. This book was released on 2008 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In their professional lives, courtroom lawyers must do these two things well: speak persuasively and write persuasively. In this noteworthy book, two noted legal writers systematically present every important idea about judicial persuasion in a fresh, entertaining way. The book covers the essentials of sound legal reasoning, including how to develop the syllogism that underlies any argument. From there the authors explain the art of brief writing, especially what to include and what to omit, so that you can induce the judge to focus closely on your arguments. Finally, they show what it takes to succeed in oral argument.
Download or read book Tough Cases written by Russell Canan and published by The New Press. This book was released on 2018-09-25 with total page 109 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Tough Cases stands out as a genuine revelation. . . . Our most distinguished judges should follow the lead of this groundbreaking volume.” —Justin Driver, The Washington Post A rare and illuminating view of how judges decide dramatic legal cases—Law and Order from behind the bench—including the Elián González, Terri Schiavo, and Scooter Libby cases Prosecutors and defense attorneys have it easy—all they have to do is to present the evidence and make arguments. It's the judges who have the heavy lift: they are the ones who have to make the ultimate decisions, many of which have profound consequences on the lives of the people standing in front of them. In Tough Cases, judges from different kinds of courts in different parts of the country write about the case that proved most difficult for them to decide. Some of these cases received international attention: the Elián González case in which Judge Jennifer Bailey had to decide whether to return a seven-year-old boy to his father in Cuba after his mother drowned trying to bring the child to the United States, or the Terri Schiavo case in which Judge George Greer had to decide whether to withdraw life support from a woman in a vegetative state over the wishes of her parents, or the Scooter Libby case about appropriate consequences for revealing the name of a CIA agent. Others are less well-known but equally fascinating: a judge on a Native American court trying to balance U.S. law with tribal law, a young Korean American former defense attorney struggling to adapt to her new responsibilities on the other side of the bench, and the difficult decisions faced by a judge tasked with assessing the mental health of a woman who has killed her own children. Relatively few judges have publicly shared the thought processes behind their decision making. Tough Cases makes for fascinating reading for everyone from armchair attorneys and fans of Law and Order to those actively involved in the legal profession who want insight into the people judging their work.
Download or read book Great American Lawyers written by William Draper Lewis and published by . This book was released on 1907 with total page 558 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Volume 4 includes tales concerning John Hemphill and James Louis Petigru, both of South Carolina.
Download or read book A Judge s Advice written by Ruggero J. Aldisert and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book has one objective in mind: to enrich the skills of lawyers and law students so that each may bear--to borrow from Izaak Walton's The Compleat Angler--the noble title of "compleat lawyer." The voice belongs to a nonagenarian who has rolled up his sleeves, sat back in his chair and said he is willing to share observations on the law--both its anatomy and philosophical purposes--based on his rather prodigious and extensive experience. The content includes selective reflections from Judge Aldisert's books, lectures and essays over 14 years as a lawyer and 50 years as a judge, teacher and author. Five major law themes have commanded his special interest over the years: the common law tradition, logic and law, the institutional crisis facing appellate courts, quality writing, and the judicial process. Lawyers and law students will be afforded answers to these queries: What is the bedrock of our common law system and how can I use that knowledge to better advocate? What are trial and appellate judges really looking for? How can I create a writing structure that will persuade? What is the logical configuration that is absolutely necessary in any legal argument? What practical challenges do judges face when deciding my case? Howdo I convince a judge to decide my way when no precedent controls and the law is not clear? For a lawyer in the courtroom to become a truly compleat lawyer, he or she must learn "Why am I doing what I do?" And that's what this book is all about. "[N]o other single volume that I am aware of so neatly and clearly explains the American legal system. This book explains stare decisis better than anything else available. Judge Aldisert writes about his particular passion -- the law -- with an enthusiasm that is almost exhausting. Through this book the law student can get a glimpse of just how enormously satisfying the next 60 or 70 years of his or her life can be....This book really should be required reading for all law students, lawyers and others too." -- Paul Lomio, library director and law lecturer at Stanford Law School
Download or read book How Judges Judge written by Brian M. Barry and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2020-11-26 with total page 361 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A judge’s role is to make decisions. This book is about how judges undertake this task. It is about forces on the judicial role and their consequences, about empirical research from a variety of academic disciplines that observes and verifies how factors can affect how judges judge. On the one hand, judges decide by interpreting and applying the law, but much more affects judicial decision-making: psychological effects, group dynamics, numerical reasoning, biases, court processes, influences from political and other institutions, and technological advancement. All can have a bearing on judicial outcomes. In How Judges Judge: Empirical Insights into Judicial Decision-Making, Brian M. Barry explores how these factors, beyond the law, affect judges in their role. Case examples, judicial rulings, judges’ own self-reflections on their role and accounts from legal history complement this analysis to contextualise the research, make it more accessible and enrich the reader’s understanding and appreciation of judicial decision-making. Offering research-based insights into how judges make the decisions that can impact daily life and societies around the globe, this book will be of interest to practising and training judges, litigation lawyers and those studying law and related disciplines.
Download or read book Bicycle Accidents written by Jeffrey P. Broker and published by Lawyers and Judges Publishing. This book was released on 2006 with total page 580 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With more than 20 years of experience investigating bicycle accidents between them, the authors present a wealth of information on the many different aspects of bicycle accidents and covers such topics as cyclists rights and duties, accident types, insurance and liability issues and bicycle regulatory information, and much more.
Download or read book How Judges Think written by Richard A. Posner and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2010-05-01 with total page 399 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A distinguished and experienced appellate court judge, Richard A. Posner offers in this new book a unique and, to orthodox legal thinkers, a startling perspective on how judges and justices decide cases. When conventional legal materials enable judges to ascertain the true facts of a case and apply clear pre-existing legal rules to them, Posner argues, they do so straightforwardly; that is the domain of legalist reasoning. However, in non-routine cases, the conventional materials run out and judges are on their own, navigating uncharted seas with equipment consisting of experience, emotions, and often unconscious beliefs. In doing so, they take on a legislative role, though one that is confined by internal and external constraints, such as professional ethics, opinions of respected colleagues, and limitations imposed by other branches of government on freewheeling judicial discretion. Occasional legislators, judges are motivated by political considerations in a broad and sometimes a narrow sense of that term. In that open area, most American judges are legal pragmatists. Legal pragmatism is forward-looking and policy-based. It focuses on the consequences of a decision in both the short and the long term, rather than on its antecedent logic. Legal pragmatism so understood is really just a form of ordinary practical reasoning, rather than some special kind of legal reasoning. Supreme Court justices are uniquely free from the constraints on ordinary judges and uniquely tempted to engage in legislative forms of adjudication. More than any other court, the Supreme Court is best understood as a political court.
Download or read book Woe Unto You Lawyers written by Fred Rodell and published by Fred B Rothman & Company. This book was released on 1987 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book What Judges Want written by James M. Stanton and published by Texas Lawyer. This book was released on 2015 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What Judges Want: A Former Judges Guide to Success in Court, a new book by James M. Stanton of the Stanton Law Firm in Dallas. After leaving the civil district bench in Dallas, Stanton began memorializing strategies and tactics that are effective in the courtroom. These methods are not found in legal hornbooks or practice guides; rather they are based on his collective experience at over 100 trials and thousands of hearings as a lawyer and judge. Now in private practice, he has effectively used these methods to persuade judges to find for his clients. A must-have for any trial lawyer, this is a field guide for preparing pleadings and oral arguments before hearings. Each chapter includes examples of how to effectively persuade judges and checklists of tips and hints that can be immediately used by the reader.
Download or read book Logic for Lawyers written by Ruggero J. Aldisert and published by . This book was released on 1989 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book tackles the basics of legal reasoning in twelve chapters, including the principles of classic logic, deductive and inductive reasoning, application of the Socratic method to legal reasoning, and formal and material fallacies.
Download or read book Common Law Judging written by Douglas E. Edlin and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 2020-03-06 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Are judges supposed to be objective? Citizens, scholars, and legal professionals commonly assume that subjectivity and objectivity are opposites, with the corollary that subjectivity is a vice and objectivity is a virtue. These assumptions underlie passionate debates over adherence to original intent and judicial activism. In Common Law Judging, Douglas Edlin challenges these widely held assumptions by reorienting the entire discussion. Rather than analyze judging in terms of objectivity and truth, he argues that we should instead approach the role of a judge’s individual perspective in terms of intersubjectivity and validity. Drawing upon Kantian aesthetic theory as well as case law, legal theory, and constitutional theory, Edlin develops a new conceptual framework for the respective roles of the individual judge and of the judiciary as an institution, as well as the relationship between them, as integral parts of the broader legal and political community. Specifically, Edlin situates a judge’s subjective responses within a form of legal reasoning and reflective judgment that must be communicated to different audiences. Edlin concludes that the individual values and perspectives of judges are indispensable both to their judgments in specific cases and to the independence of the courts. According to the common law tradition, judicial subjectivity is a virtue, not a vice.
Download or read book Legal Writing written by Robert Edwin Bacharach and published by American Bar Association. This book was released on 2020 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A magnificent book on writing. Drawing on the lessons from psycholinguistics and rhetoric, Judge Bacharach has written a remarkably practical book on how to write effectively. Judge Bacharach illustrates his points with very specific suggestions and countless examples from briefs from top lawyers and opinions of judges. I learned so much from this wonderful book." -- Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean, Berkeley School of Law
Download or read book And Justice for Some written by Wendy Murphy and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2007 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Identifies current criminal rights practices that limit the abilities of victims to receive justice, including such tactics as victim privacy invasion, intimidating cross-examinations, and defense presentations that are designed to distort the truth.
