• Appeals,  Judges,  Legal Humor

    Does it Matter Who’s On Your Panel?

    Our local appellate court in Ventura (Second District, Division Six) can be a good place to hang out if you’re looking for a chuckle. I don’t think I’ve ever left a session there without having at least once laughed, or at least smiled — just not in my own case. No, I don’t laugh at anybody . . . I laugh with them. At a recent session, a somewhat mischievous question from the presiding justice brought some grins to those waiting and provided food for thought. Presiding Justice Arthur Gilbert is well known for his wit, and recently it even came out during the criminal case calendar. Usually, all four…

  • Legal Humor

    A Legal Classic Spoofed, and Well

    I doubt you can find a lawyer unfamiliar with the scene in the movie “A Few Good Men” in which the defense lawyer, played by Tom Cruise, grills the witness, a Marine colonel played by Jack Nicholson, over the disciplinary practices at the Marine Barracks at Guantanamo Bay.  (You know the one: “You can’t handle the truth!”) There’s a terrific spoof of that scene over at PrawfsBlawg.  Substitute a congressman for the Tom Cruise character, 7-time Cy Young award winner Roger Clemens for the witness, and the subject of steroids and human growth hormone for discipline at the Marine Barracks, and you have a wonderfully entertaining spoof.  (Just a script,…