Governor Dannel P. Malloy should be bold in proposing reform in the state’s courts. It is not that the judiciary is opposed in principle to change. But bench and bar are inherently conservative. They cherish the status quo, even if the current manner of doing business is wasteful. Someone needs to take a leadership role. Who better than a new governor?
All it would take would be a simple piece of legislation to reduce the backlog of cases in the criminal and civil courts, cut the cost to both plaintiffs and defendants of taking a case to trial, and, as a result, improve public...
January 27, 2011
I am in the business of offering hope, but there are hopeless situations, cases in which there is nothing that can be done. Accepting that is hard for me, but it is far harder on the man or woman viewing me as their last best hope. They abide in their sorrow, while I move on to another case. I never hear the stars of the bar talk about hopelessness. The literature of the bar's elite is generally of the self-congratulatory sort, with boast of cases won, impossible odds bested.
But what do you tell a man serving what will undoubtedly be the rest of his life behind bars after a plea of...
January 24, 2011
The economic slowdown has finally trickled down to street lawyers. Clients now struggle to pay even modest fees. There is little by way of easy credit, and even less in home equity. As for credit card advances, well, good luck. But trouble keeps coming, and folks need lawyers. Lawyers also need work. It is a recipe for disaster.
I tried a habeas corpus case last week. Among the claims were that trial counsel failed to conduct a meaningful investigation of the allegations against the client, who was charged with possessing cocaine with the intent to sell. The case started with the...
January 22, 2011
I saw another of the law’s dismal and predictable set pieces last week. As always, a trial court blessed the mess and called it justice. When will the courts begin to hold police officers to the same standards to which other witnesses are held?
A client was arrested and charged with possession of narcotics with the intent to sell. Officers handcuffed him, took him to a police station, and then started questioning him. At the end of several hours, the client signed his life away, writing a confession that led the officers to get a search warrant for another location where drugs and cash...
January 21, 2011
January 17, 2011
I was born mid-way through the baby boom, that great torrent of folks tumbling from the womb between the end of the Second World War and the...
January 16, 2011
Let me see if I get this straight: Jared Loughner is an unhinged loner, a madman who, inspired by voices only he could hear, erupted in a destructive...
January 16, 2011
I hate the Texas Bar Association. You should too. So should everyone who cares about whether people accused of a crime can find a lawyer to represent...
January 15, 2011
The end came swiftly: Yesterday, Waterbury State's Attorney John Connelly resigned, ending a 30-year career as one of Connecticut's most colorful and...
January 13, 2011
It seems paradoxical to suggest that we need to fight for the right to die. We owe nature a death. Most of us spend the better part of our lives...
January 11, 2011
The rhetoricat bobbing and weaving responding to the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, a federal judge and more than a dozen others, has...