Articles

"I know lots of people who say you're wrong!" 

"Really? Like who?" 

"Well, you know ... like ... lots of people."

The proverbial "they" as in, "You know what they say ..." Is among the laziest rejoinders in an argument. Instead of identifying problems of fact or logic, the person invents an imaginary consensus to suggest his or her opponent's position is nothing but a fringe outlier.

Certainly such a tactic has no place in the courtroom, right? After all, one of the main reasons to exclude...

We have all been there. You're taking a deposition and your opposing counsel channels a $10,000 Pyramid contestant coaxing his teammate to say, "Every conceivable objection under the sun?" These attorneys act like their year-end bonus is based on the number of objections lodged after each question. While it can be annoying, deposition objections are mostly white noise for the examining lawyer. However, there is value in discerning which objections matter, and which objections can be ignored. Dev...

"Nobody ever went to a ballgame to see the umpire," Chief Justice John Roberts declared in the opening remarks to his own confirmation hearings. He is right. It would be a head-scratching moment to go to Dodger Stadium and at the end of a complete game shutout, see Clayton Kershaw high-five his teammates ... and the home plate umpire?

The same goes with jury trials. Advocacy comes from the lawyers. While judges can examine witnesses, they are not to put their thumb on the scales of justice when...