January 2008


Attorney Held in Contempt for Reading Maxim in Court

The WSJ’s Law Blog reports today that a judge in North Carolina held an attorney in contempt last week after he saw the attorney reading Maxim magazine in court. For those of you not familiar with Maxim, it is (reportedly)…



Cyclist Sued for Damaging Front of Driver’s Car

A Spanish newspaper reports that businessman Tomas Delgado is suing for damage that 17-year-old Enaitz Iriondo caused to Delgado’s car during an accident in 2004.  Delgado alleges that Iriondo thoughtlessly caused 20,000 Euros worth of damage to the Audi A8…


Candidate’s Platform: “I Don’t Plan to Do the Job”

Evidently a strong believer in smaller government, Ed Hamilton says that if elected he will shrink the size of the government in Kerr County, Texas, by at least one job—his own. Hamilton, a 77-year-old Republican, says that the position of…


Robber Awarded $1 Million for Violating Probation

A judge in Massachusetts has ruled that a convicted two-time bank robber can keep a $1 million lottery prize he won recently, even though playing the lottery violated the terms of his probation. Timothy Elliott pleaded guilty to unarmed robbery…


If Great Literary Works Had Been Written by Lawyers

These essays were written and published in 1999 and 2000 respectively.  They appeared in the law journal The Green Bag, and led to a writeup in the Wall Street Journal and a couple of appearances by yours truly on National…