Blog Posts

If it is in fact true that one year in the life of a dog is equivalent to seven years in the life of a human, my dogs, Penelope and Odysseus, and I are now about the same age. That would be a good thing, I suppose, were it not for the fact that all three of us limp along most days showing signs...

How far was Clarence Darrow willing to go in support of his clients? The law requires a duty of zealous advocacy. We are required to make our client’s cause our cause. Happy the lawyer whose role as advocate in a case or controversy corresponds with his own deeply held political and...

Lishan Wang just called the bluff of bar regulators, although no one yet seems to realize it. The 47-year-old physician is insisting on representing himself against charges that he shot and killed a colleague. He has been appointed a public defender as stand-by counsel to assist him with court...

A good friend of mine is tied down in never-ending litigation in family court. He’s trying to get back into the lives of his children. He’s never been accused of abusing them. He pays his child support dutifully. He’s never neglected them. But he’s still been locked out of...

I didn’t see many news crews or protesters in court the other day. I was standing next to a young victim of gun violence whose life was destroyed by too-easy-access to firearms. No one cared about him.






He is a young black man. He...

“If you see something, say something.” That’s the mantra of the new national security state.
In a post-9/11 world, we’re all junior G-men on the lookout for terrorists. But if you try to complain in a courtroom when Government overreaches, you just might get thrown out...

I didn’t see any headlines heralding the anniversary, but I noted it nonetheless. Feb. 3 was the 100th anniversary of ratification of the 16th Amendment to Constitution. It enshrined the income tax in federal law.
It’s not the sort of date I would normally notice. But I was...

SIGMUND FREUD was rarely accused of being too timid. Religious ideas are illusions, he wrote. God and the notion of an afterlife are mere products of our wishes. They are no less real for being illusory. Call them necessary fictions.
But Freud was cautious, even coy, about government and...

A good friend of mine can’t needle me enough about my outspoken support of gun control. He’s a criminal defense lawyer, so he likes to stand tall for the defense of the rights of ordinary people. The very idea that someone could take his guns enrages him. He marshals all sorts...

“Can I sue?”
I am asked the question almost daily. The answer is, of course, simple: You can always sue. The real question is, can you file a lawsuit and win. In the United States, there is little harm in trying. That’s because losers aren’t required to pay the cost of...