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About the courts.
By Anne Skove, Esq.

Post Frequency: 12/day

Last Entry: March 25, 2011 at 00:00:00

Hendersonville Needs Volunteers

Posted on June 26, 2008
Historic courthouses require enormous time and effort from volunteers. If you're anywhere near Hendersonville, NC, near the amazingly beautiful Pisgah National Forest, the Henderson County Sheriff's Office needs help. Volunteers are needed at the historic courthouse to greet visitors, staff the front desk, etc...

The Results Are In: Court Polls

Posted on June 26, 2008
It's amazing to think that anyone has an opinion about something besides Obama or guns or Heather Locklear's emotional state. In fact, citizens have made their feelings about the courts known in a few recent polls. A poll about the SCOTUS (which, unfortunately, predates today's decisions) shows that only 26% of voters rank it good or excellent...

It Looks Good on Paper: Washington Clerks Await Raise

Posted on June 26, 2008
Did you ever get a raise, but didn't know when you'd actually see the result? It happens. In Snohomish County, Washington, court clerks have been negotiating a new salary and benefits package since 2004. A new contract was approved by the County Council...

What Does the Yellow Light Mean? Tenn. High Court Rules on Slow Driver

Posted on June 25, 2008
How slow can you go? If you've ever driven through Tennessee, you know that slow-moving vehicles are a rarity. You might even think they were illegal. As if to prove our point that traffic cases are far more exciting and meaningful than anyone gives them credit for, the Tennessee Supreme Court ruled that going under the speed limit can be grounds for a stop if the driver impedes other traffic...

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Budget Casualties in Florida: The Domino Effect

Posted on June 25, 2008
When a budget is cut, "somethings' gotta give." The latest victim of Florida's budget axe: the Orange County Domestic Violence Court. Do we need special courts for domestic violence? Before this trend began, domestic violence cases were often heard in family court or criminal court...

L.A. Traffic Court: The Worser of Two Evils Just Got Better

Posted on June 24, 2008
What's worse than L.A. traffic? L.A. traffic court. The backlog, as you can imagine, resembles rush hour on a Friday afternoon. Arraignments only take a few minutes to process, but there are many, many cases! The court tends to 500-1000 in a typical month...

Professor Halper

Posted on June 24, 2008
A sad note from W&L Law this afternoon: Professor Louise Halper passed away. Property is nobody's favorite subject, but under the guidance of Professor Halper we learned to love it anyway! She was approachable, kind, and made everyone feel welcome. Southern hospitality abounds in Lexington, Virginia, but for those not fitting the mold (or even ever figuring out what that mold was) it can be a difficult place, so her support meant a lot...

Swearing Required

Posted on June 24, 2008
What if they had a trial and nobody swore? An area plagued by non-oath-swearing judges and justices, upstate New York has had its share of problems related to informality in local courts. This time, a conviction was reversed after jurors were not properly sworn...

Fine Locally: Wisconsin Town and Gown Court

Posted on June 24, 2008
We love useful, creative solutions, so a new (to us) idea from Whitewater, Wisconsin, caught our eye. Here's the problem: UW-Whitewater students are inconvenienced by having to go to another town to contest traffic tickets or pay fines in state court...

R.I.P. George Carlin

Posted on June 23, 2008
"So my name is a footnote in American legal history, which I'm perversely kind of proud of." -- George Carlin We're big believers in celebrating the lives of people, so here's a link to F.C.C. v. Pacifica Foundation.

Blog of the Week(end): Deliberations

Posted on June 21, 2008
Once upon a time when we edited the Jur-E Bulletin for NCSC, we received correspondence from one Anne Reed, a cheesehead lawyer starting a jury blog. Cool! We love blogs (obviously), and some of our favorite people are cheeseheads, so we were all for the idea...

Kansan Juveniles Have Right to Jury

Posted on June 21, 2008
Hundreds of retried cases, scads of summonses, umpteen questions for prospective jurors, and a higher caseload for courts -- these are just a few of the scenarios courts have to look forward to after this week's Kansas Supreme Court decision giving juveniles the right to a jury trial...

You Heard It Here Last: Chief Judge Kaye Retiring

Posted on June 20, 2008
Is this news to you? Here's hoping we have some under-the-rock readers! We first read about it here: Help Wanted: Chief Judge, No Experience Necessary, Simple Justice (June 19, 2008). SHG is the early bird, once again! Our best to Chief Judge Kaye. She has always been a pleasure to work with: smart, friendly, and with good ideas pouring out of her...

Don't Cry for Me, Defense Counsel

Posted on June 20, 2008
Admit it: you see flashing lights in your rearview mirror, you get pulled over, you roll down the window, and promptly start bawling. Does it help? Sometimes. Did you do it on purpose? Hmm... We've all heard about (and perhaps been involved in) proceedings that move us to tears...

When in Williamsburg...

Posted on June 19, 2008
If you're feeling colonial, head on out to Williamsburg, VA, September 26 & 27 for the Institute of Bill of Rights Law Supreme Court Preview conference. Panelists include Robert Barnes from the Washington Post, Joan Biskupic of USA Today, Lyle Denniston from SCOTUSblog, Linda Greenhouse from the NYT, David G...

Sufficiently Uncertain: The Borderline Case of Indiana v. Edwards

Posted on June 19, 2008
Justice Breyer, in his Indiana v. Edwards majority opinion, seems to notice the fine line between competency to stand trial and competency to proceed pro se. What that standard might be, though, is "sufficiently uncertain." We know what it's not, because the Court found Indiana's suggestion that the standard kick in where the defendant "cannot communicate coherently with the court or a jury" unacceptable...

Risk Among Drug Offenders

Posted on June 18, 2008
We are so inundated with touchy-feely stories about drug courts that it's surprising we haven't gone into diabetic shock, or at least caught a good case of the willies. From the Utah courts, another story: coveted (in a sense) drug court spaces are now reserved for hard-core offenders...

What We Were Wondering: Numbers from Massachusetts

Posted on June 18, 2008
Just as we were wondering how many same-sex weddings California courts will have to cope with to see whether some courts' claims of a coming deluge were valid, the NYT provided interesting numbers from Massachusetts: In 2006, according to the US Census Bureau, there were 23,655 same-sex households in Massachusetts Since May 17, 2004, at least 10,500 same-sex couples wed there 6,121 of those married within the first 6 months that such weddings were legal In 2005, there were 2,060 same-sex weddings in Massachusetts In 2006, there were 1,442 In the first 8 months of 2007, there were 867 (do you see where this is going?) Nearly 2/3 of the weddings have been between women Nearly 1/3 of the couples are in their 40s, compared to the 1/2 of straight marrying couples who are under 30 According to lawyers, same-sex couples are more likely to have prenups See Gay Couples Find Marriage Is a Mixed Bag, Pam Belluck, New York Times (June 15, 2008)...

Arizona Expert Limits Unconstitutional

Posted on June 17, 2008
You know you're a parent when you hear yourself say "It's only fun until someone gets hurt!" Similarly, tort reform sounds great, until it's held unconstitutional. Today an Arizona court overturned the state's rule on expert witness qualifications in medical malpractice cases...

More What Not to Do: Swearing In or At?

Posted on June 17, 2008
Citizens who come to support their defendant siblings are usually welcome in court. That is, until they start yelling and swearing at the assistant prosecutor, refusing to leave when asked, and produce more swearing upon being forcibly removed from the courtroom...

Help for Chiefs Who Want to Improve Mental Health/Criminal Justice

Posted on June 17, 2008
Is your state's mental health in trouble? If you're a chief justice, you can help. Thanks to the NCSC's Federal Funding Report, we hear that the Council of State Governments is accepting applications from state court chief justices interested in establishing statewide task forces to work on improving outcomes for individuals with mental illness in the criminal justice system...

Justice Talking Won't Be

Posted on June 16, 2008
After nine years of helping the public learn about and discuss major justice-related issues of the day, Justice Talking has lost its funding and will be going off the air. The rights of individuals with mental illness, the roles of bail bondsmen and private prisons in the criminal justice system, First Amendment issues, election reform, the right to a jury trial...

Graduation Day: Clarence, Sandra, and Bianca

Posted on June 16, 2008
Inviting Justice Thomas to give a commencement address seems about as good of an idea as inviting Marcel Marceau to a Toastmasters meeting. The Sunday NYT, which we've only just now had a chance to glance at, devotes an entire page to Commencement Addresses by Famous People...

Blog of the Week(end): Law Professor Blogs

Posted on June 15, 2008
Wow, to keep finding new blogs for you all each weekend is tougher than it appears! The number of actual blogs in cyberspace is actually quite tiny. There are only about 15 or so! How do we keep finding more? One way is to go to a place where much great bloggery is captured on a single site...

What Were You Thinking?! (or Were They?) Juvenile Competency Issues

Posted on June 14, 2008
"Put on your socks." "I can't find them!" "Look for them!" "I *am* looking!" [Note: socks are within 5 inches of his body.] Welcome to a typical morning at our house! We love our kids, but the idea of competency and children sometimes seems like an oxymoron...

Mediation Failure or Case Success? Pregnancy Discrimination in NC

Posted on June 13, 2008
Sometimes failure is not only an option, it's the best option. "Fitting the forum to the fuss," a time-honored concept in conflict resolution, is an art. It's also a test of the conflict and the disputants. When mediation "fails," it's often because the parties and/or conflict was not a good fit for that particular forum...

Magna Carta, Shmagna Shcarta! UK Seeks to Detain Terror Suspects

Posted on June 12, 2008
Is the Magna Carta part of the western world's legal and cultural heritage, or just a nifty historic document? Should we indulge in ancestor worship or mere ancestor curiosity when it comes to the m.c.? In the UK, a repeal of sorts is in the works. A 42-day detention of terror suspects, without charge, passed the House of Commons...

A Day in the Life

Posted on June 12, 2008
The issue of judicial pay makes us wonder just what, after reading about a day (really, just part of a day) in the life of a juvenile court judge, an appropriate salary would be. We've read Judge Lederman's many articles over the years (she is a frequent contributor to the annual Future Trends in State Courts)...

Vacation Plans: Supreme Court Preview in Chicago

Posted on June 12, 2008
It's never too early to start thinking about the next SCOTUS term! If you'll be anywhere in the Windy City (that's not just an expression, we know someone who blew off her bike while riding along the lake!) on July 15, be sure to stop by the beautiful Standard Club for the Supreme Court Preview...

Latest Word from NY: Justice Orders Raise

Posted on June 12, 2008
Wouldn't it be great if you could just order the legislature to give you a raise? The latest episode in the NY judges' quest for a raise is an order from a justice, who opines that separation of powers (among other things) dictates the increase. Recall the NY judges have not gotten a raise since just about ever...

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