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Miscellaneous

court-o-rama.org

About the courts.
By Anne Skove, Esq.

Post Frequency: 12/day

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

How Do You Say Ka-Ching? Court Saddled with Huge Interpreter Bill

Posted on June 11, 2008
It's a settled rule that defendants in criminal cases are entitled to interpreters. The rub in nearly every jurisdiction is how much more is needed? Who other than criminal defendants gets the service? Mother of the defendant? Very special cousins who wish to be present? Any and all spectators? What other cases? Civil? And which types? Family? Dependency? Bankruptcy? All hearings, or just the "important" ones? What about jurors, petit and grand? And what types of interpreters? Those interpreting signed languages for the deaf may be required under the ADA...

Living in Sin: No Marriage in Butte County, CA

Posted on June 11, 2008
Like Kern and Merced Counties, Butte County, California, will also stop performing wedding ceremonies. Nothing to do with the same-sex business coming down from the high court not at all...that's the Batsonesque reason given, anyway. Just how costly are weddings? How necessary? Unlike other court functions, weddings can easily be conducted elsewhere...

Excitement in Ohio: No Lethal Injection, Rules Judge

Posted on June 10, 2008
We might bore people to death. We might stun people into an early grave. But in Ohio, we don't use the 3-drug cocktail recently upheld by the SCOTUS. So says a Lorain County Court of Common Pleas judge (more proof that the law trickles up). The SCOTUS case trickled up from Kentucky...

Smokin' in the Boys Room

Posted on June 10, 2008
We believe that bans on [pit bulls, smoking, adult ads, transfats, sheep offal, peanut butter, you name it] are like diets: easy to talk about, difficult to do. One criminal justice center recently banned smoking. See how easy that was? Smoking! Everybody, even most smokers, hates it...

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Comings and Goings in Tulsa

Posted on June 10, 2008
Congrats to Tulsa County court administrator Ann Domin on her new position as deputy director of the Indian Nations Council of Governments. That means an opening at the court, which attorney Vicki Cox looks forward to filling. Best of luck to both! See Attorney Tapped as County Court Administrator, Tulsa World (May 31, 2008).

How Public is LAX?

Posted on June 10, 2008
The typical "public forum" for First Amendment purposes is a town square. Los Angeles, we suppose (we've never been), has no such thing. Hare Krishnas are claiming that the airport is to LA what the bandstand is to River City. Interesting enough in itself...

One through Nine: Pitfalls of Juror Notetaking

Posted on June 10, 2008
1. Could get splinters from biting pencil 2. Writers' cramp could kick in, preventing them from sending the judge important missives during deliberations 3. Paper cuts could render them sympathetic to plaintiffs 4. Kills trees 5. Temptation to fashion paper airplanes 6...

Excellence in Cape Cod

Posted on June 09, 2008
Kudos to Cape Cod court workers on their recent awards: Ethel "Dee" Walkus and Karen M. Wehner received Massachusetts Trial Court Employee Excellence Awards, as a leadership team for their work as operations supervisors at the Barnstable Probate and Family Court Barbara Dinn, office manager at the Southeast Division of the Housing Court, who served on a team working on a new Housing Court in Plymouth (oh, if those pilgrims arrived today!), was likewise honored by the Mass...

Will Blog for Benefits

Posted on June 09, 2008
How court-o-rama differs from public broadcasting: No pledge week here! No sound! No hilarious game shows (yet!) No furry puppets (usually!) How we're alike: Both rely on the kindness of strangers You may or may not have noticed the brand-spanking-new "donate" button...

The Jury Is Out: Munsterman Rocks!!!

Posted on June 09, 2008
If a group of 12 people got together in a room after reading a classic such as Jury System Management or attending one of his well-put-together meetings (few can fill a room with such an interesting group of people!) they would no doubt conclude that the G in G...

Blog of the Week(end): New York Personal Injury Law Blog

Posted on June 08, 2008
Were we to tell our non-law-geek friends about the New York Personal Injury Law Blog, we'd probably get a funny look. It sounds like anyone's worst nightmare: a lawyer from New York with his own blog! Discussing his lobbying efforts! But we're here to tell you that the NYPILB is a heck of a lot better than you'd expect! It's one of our frequent reads...

Appeal-on-Appeal Action

Posted on June 06, 2008
Today the Supreme Court of Virginia explained a doctrine called "the law of the case:" It is this: "[when] there have been two appeals in the same case, between the same parties, and the facts are the same, nothing decided on the first appeal can be re-examined on a second appeal...

Kern County Clerk Is First to Say I Won't

Posted on June 06, 2008
Earlier we noted that the San Diego court decided to allow its employees to opt out of working on same-sex marriages. Now, we hear that a clerk in Kern County is refusing to conduct all* marriages. She claims the court does not have the resources to deal with the coming wedding deluge...

Giant Slashing Sound: Budget Cuts Cost Jobs

Posted on June 06, 2008
Budget deficit, in dollars (as opposed to krones), of the State of Minnesota Board of Public Defense: $3.8 million Amount (again, dollars!) by which the state legislature slashed the Board's budget: $1.5 million Percent of Minnesotans accused of felonies who rely on public defenders: 85 Percent of Minnesotans accused of misdemeanors who rely on public defenders: 50 Average cases per year handled by a public defender in Minnesota: 714 Number of FT positions cut, starting next month: 72 Number of those positions currently vacant: 19 Number of those eliminated via early retirement and other voluntary departures: 30 Number of public defenders facing layoffs: 23-24 Current number of FT public defenders in MInnesota: 441 See 72 Public Defenders to Budget Cuts, AP/WCCO (June 5, 2008)...

Effective Assistance

Posted on June 05, 2008
After writing about ineffective assistance of counsel claims (and we should clarify that the rarity was the success, not the making of the claims themselves) we heard from a Washington state trial judge on the matter: * * * Ineffective assistance is a very common claim on appeal in Washington...

A Frost-y Juvenile Sentence

Posted on June 05, 2008
You might call it The Trial by Existence. Whose house this was they did not know. The poet died so long ago. Teenagers who vandalized the Vermont home of Robert Frost were sentenced to lectures on the poet by Middlebury College professor and Frost biographer Jay Parini...

Making West Virginia More Appealing

Posted on June 05, 2008
If you're in Texas, you probably think every state has two courts of last resort. If you're in New York (or watch way too much Law & Order) you might think that courts of general jurisdiction everywhere are called "supreme." If you're in West Virginia, you might think the intermediate court of appeals and court of last resort are one and the same (bka Supreme Court of Appeals), but you could soon be mistaken...

O-CAFA

Posted on June 04, 2008
The WSJ says "We can't find a single issue on which Mr. Obama has broken with his party's left-wing interest groups." They must not be looking back too far. One of the first bills he voted for was the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005 (CAFA), which passed on February 10, 2005...

Mo' Money in NC

Posted on June 04, 2008
Twenty-five years on a job requiring crucial decision-making and 24/7 availability...surgeon? Law enforcement? President (apparently they get a lot of 3 a.m. calls)? One more detail: the salary is $53,000 (that's after the 25 years of service). Answer: North Carolina magistrate...

Urban Legend Debunked

Posted on June 03, 2008
Claims of ineffective assistance of counsel are approaching stories about pop-tops and naughty gerbils. Everybody *says* they are the victim of ineffective assistance of counsel, but after reading some of these cases one wonders if there is such a thing...

Ethically Speaking

Posted on June 03, 2008
FYI Texans, the Houston Bar Association will present a CLE, "Ethics in Municipal Courts for Lawyers". We often look to muni courts when trawling for court-o-rama news because that is where the action is and where the people are. A wise (tho perhaps not so tech-savvy) person once explained that public trust and confidence starts at small claims, traffic, and muni courts...

Ever-Higher Rankings, or Is VP Next for C-O-R?

Posted on June 03, 2008
Like Obama and Clinton (sorta), Court-O-Rama is now in the top two! We know many fine Bennetts but not these Texan Bennetts. We wish we did, though, because they just picked us as one of their top two (of two, in no apparent order). They also have nice words for many fine blogs that didn't make the Top 100 Criminal Justice Blogs...

We're Number 96!

Posted on June 02, 2008
Check it out! Listed at #96 in the "Miscellaneous" section of The Top 100 Criminal Justice Blogs, is court-o-rama. Thank you, Criminal Justice Degrees Guide!

Justice Delayed is Judge Reprimanded

Posted on June 02, 2008
Do case processing time standards mean anything? We often wondered this as we tracked time standards -- both aspirational and, uh, less aspirational. Where do they come from? What happens when they're not followed? Does efficiency (or lack thereof) count for anything in the courts? Yes they do...

Help All the Lawyers

Posted on June 02, 2008
From the Virginia State Bar News this morning comes an announcement that Lawyers Helping Lawyers (LHL) needs volunteers. LHL is starting two groups. One is described as "a peer-led support meeting for legal professionals who live with addictions such as alcoholism or other substance abuse...

Blog of the Week(end): beSpacific

Posted on June 01, 2008
Sabrina Pacifica is a generalist in the best sense of the word. There isn't much territory she hasn't covered, and what's left she can navigate using her mad library skillz! Her blog, beSpacific, is the source of all things all things, though her focus is law and technology...

Show Me the Money: Federal Funding Ops

Posted on May 30, 2008
The Government Relations Office at the National Center for State Courts has just released a new issue of its Federal Funding Report. Of note: The Juvenile Indigent Defense Action Network (JIDAN) will grant $100,000 for one year to support reform efforts...

School's Out but Polygamists Return Home

Posted on May 30, 2008
While most kids are celebrating the end of school for summer, some of the Texas polygamist children are headed back to the compound on Monday. According to the AP, a tentative agreement would allow parents to reclaim their children if they show proper identification, take parenting classes, and remain in Texas...

Rewarding Good Work: Same-Sex Marriage Article Digs Deep

Posted on May 30, 2008
Is there an Oscar(tm) or some type of pat on the back for Nice Use of Legislative Information? It's not often that we read an article with in-depth explanations of complex issues. Lawsuit Expected in N.Y. Same-Sex Marriage Recognition, Joseph Spector, GNS (May 20, 2008) is a great example of "how to...

Medtronic Plus: The Face and Future of Preemption

Posted on May 30, 2008
Thirteen million dollars' worth of punitive damages awarded by a jury tossed: this is what preemption looks like. While the Texas Vioxx award, tossed due to lack of evidence, seems to be getting more ink ("evidence" is apparently easier for reporters to spell than "preemption"), the New Jersey ruling based on preemption is a far more likely and, for those interested in the Seventh Amendment, dangerous future...

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