Judicial Impeachment

No. 1,454

There’s an interesting post on the subject of judicial impeachment in the Brennan Center for Justice Blog. Impeachment of judges is rare. Although it is not impossible to impeach a judge for his/her rulings, this has not been the practice. A group of members of the Pennsylvania General Assembly are seeking to impeach four members of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court for redrawing the Congressional districts in this state. The Court held that the districts, as established by the legislature, violated the Pennsylvania Constitution. These legislators believe that the Supreme Court exceeded its authority and usurped a legislative power. Thus, the impeachment resolution.

Image Pennlive

You may remember that Justice Rolf Larsen was impeached and removed from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 1994 for misconduct both on and off the bench. The primary reason was that he had persuaded a doctor to write him prescriptions under a false name. But he was also criticized for improper contact with litigants.

I had only one personal encounter as a young lawyer with then Judge Larsen when he was on the Allegheny County Common Pleas Bench. I wanted to look at a file at the Prothonotary’s Office which I found had been checked out to Judge Larsen. I went to his chambers and asked the tipstaff, whereupon I was ushered into chambers and sternly asked why I wanted to see the file. When I told him I had a similar case, he made me review the file in chambers while he worked at his desk. I don’t remember the particulars of the interrogation, but I went away with the impression that he thought I was trying to remove papers from the file. I do remember that the file was not terribly helpful and I couldn’t get away quickly enough. As a result of that encounter, I resolved to stay as far away from this judge as possible.

Justice Larsen’s legacy includes his opinion in Pugh v. Holmes. In that case, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court stated that caveat emptor was no longer the law with respect to residential leases in Pennsylvania. Larsen’s opinion stated that there was an implied covenant of habitability in every residential lease, written or oral, which could not be waived. This opinion was unusual in that it went beyond the facts of that case, setting forth a broad discussion of the law and adopting a complete range of remedies.

While on the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas bench, Judge Larsen was credited with adopting the practice of issuing arrest warrants for fathers who were seriously delinquent in child support payments.

CLT

Category: History, Legal Ethics, Legal History, News Commentary
Tags: Rolf Larsen > Supreme Court impeachment

Writing for lawyers and everybody else.

No. 1,453

I read about a software package that is supposed to help lawyers improve their writing. Don’t ask me to name names. If you’re curious, you can find it yourself. Essentially, it marks up your briefs or anything else you give it.

Lawyers of my generation are almost all abysmal writers. There are exceptions, of course. But they are singularities, notable for their rarity. There has been a substantial effort by law schools in recent years to reverse this trend. Good luck on that. Lawyers, even young ones, are a stubborn bunch with big egos and attitudes cast in bronze.

Some will intermittently admit the need for improvement. But such declarations are rarely more than passing moments of insight. Even if I were asked, I have no desire to help these trogs improve their clarity or style. It would be a thankless and frustrating exercise. Fights all the way, no doubt.

To learn, one must wish to change. Lawyers almost never think there is anything wrong with their prose. And even when they do, they rarely understand, or even want to understand, what might be needed to stifle boredom. Nor do they have the perseverance to shepherd their work through multiple drafts.

Writing is hard work. First drafts are rarely that good. You must be willing to throw away whole pages that just don’t make it. You must weed your garden, removing the ordinary and planting words and expressions that evoke images. And yes, there would be extra billing time to explain to the client.

May they all be working for my adversaries.

CLT

Category: Pittsburgh Legal Back Talk

Trivial Pursuit

No. 1,452

We went to a trivial pursuit game tonight. Great fun. Here’s a few facts you might not know

– The most recent Country formed in the World is South Sudan.

– The father of modern linguistics is Noam Chomsky of MIT

– U S Steel Corporation was founded in 1901

– Saffron is extracted from the flower of the crocus

– The midget in the Barnum & Bailey Circus was General Tom Thumb.

CLT

Category: Pittsburgh Legal Back Talk

No Garbage Left Behind.

No. 1,451

Image: donkeyshines.com
OK. So we all make mistakes. Its a hard job, especially in winter. Just come get my garbage, please.

The garbage men failed to pick up my garbage yesterday. I came home in the afternoon and it was still on the curb. Twenty-four hours later it is still there and I am feeling angry.

Was it really an oversight. Or was it a rebuff? Maybe it was too far from the curb. Or maybe it was too jumbled. Or maybe, since I laid the cans in such a way that they couldn’t blow over, they thought they had already been emptied.

The most aggravation is that there is nobody to complain to until Monday. That means it probably won’t be picked up until Tuesday. By then, it will almost be time to do it again.

If there is anything to take away (aside from the garbage) from this experience, it is an awareness of others who feel overlooked or, worse, dumped upon. I know how you feel, guys!

CLT

Category: Pittsburgh Legal Back Talk

FEARLESS!

No. 1,450

Ghandi found the courage to stand alone against the most powerful colonial empire in history.

We are constantly constrained by fear.

What do we fear? Just about everything. The unknown. Known perils. Death. Injury. Embarrassment. Failure. Schoolyard bullies. I could keep going.

Fear is physical. We feel it in our gut. We feel it with a dry mouth and a beating heart. Sometimes our hands shake and our brain freezes. It is not fun.

And yet, we all know that there are times when fear must be conquered. There are tasks that must be accomplished and sometimes there is no one to do it but you.

But there is a flip side: regret. Yes, you could have been a contender. We all could have been or done something that we really should have, could have. And would have . . . but for . . . fear.

Yes, the worst can happen. But often it doesn’t. When the President announced that the United States would move its embassy to Jerusalem, the old hands at the TV networks went pale. And then, nothing much happened. Whatever you think of the wisdom (or lack thereof) of this President’s policies, you have to give him this: he isn’t afraid to act boldly and decisively. Courage is a virtue available to any human being, important or seemingly insignificant.

I’m not suggesting reckless behavior. The decision to overcome fear and step forward must be a carefully calculated one. The price of failure must be weighed and accepted. In other words, negative consequences must be part of the package, if they happen. Why? Because doing it was worth the risk!

Be strong. Stand alone. Stand for something. Do something worth doing.

I wanted to say something important in this blog post number 1,450. I hope you, who have read this far, are encouraged to do something worthwhile and courageous.

But if nobody reads this post, I still wrote it and I feel a little stronger. Not fearless yet. Just working on it.

CLT

Category: Milestones

Jump Like a Fish, Jump Like a Porpoise, all Join Hands and Habeas Corpus!

No. 1,449

The Great Writ is far outside my practice area . Based upon the excellent article in the ACS blog which is linked here, its outside everybody’s practice area. The author, who is referred to as Judge, doesn’t pull any punches, even when criticizing the United States Supreme Court, which she does throughout.

I presented such a petition once or twice in my distant youth to get a hearing scheduled for some poor sap who was locked up without a clue, usually on mental health grounds. I doubt whether it would work today.

CLT

Category: Constitutional Law, Criminal Law

Snow Day on the Highway.

No/ 1,448

Bridgeville Police traffic report on their Facebook page made the news today.

Category: Pittsburgh Legal Back Talk

Pitt Law Selects New Dean

No. 1,447

The University of Pittsburgh announced yesterday that it had selected Amy J Wildermuth of the University of Utah to be its new Dean, commencing July 1.

The new Dean is both a law professor and a high-ranking administrative officer at Utah, being that University’s first chief sustainability officer.

Prior to joining the law faculty at the University of Utah, Wildermuth served as law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens. She also clerked for Judge Guido Calabresi of the Second Circuit and Judge Harry T. Edwards of the D.C. Circuit. Her articles, which focus on administrative and procedural law, have appeared in outlets such as the Northwestern University Law Review, the Emory Law Journal, and the Minnesota Law Review. Wildermuth was the recipient of the S.J. Quinney College of Law Early Career Faculty Award in 2007, the Peter W. Billings Excellence in Teaching Award in 2009 and the Faculty Service Award in 2011. Among other degrees, she has received an MS in Environmental Engineering from the University of Illinois. Her academic career as a law professor has included a concentration in environmental law.

Pitt Law is ranked among the top 100 Law Schools in the nation. New rankings released this month by U.S. News & World Report show the school’s overall ranking went up eight places this year from 82nd to 74th. It is ranked 20th nationally in health law and 27th nationally in international law.

CLT

Category: Pittsburgh Legal Back Talk

What duty does a jay-walker have in the age of driverless vehicles?

Np. 1,446

Image: dezeen.com

Time reports that a woman struck and killed in Arizona by a self-driving Uber was the first pedestrian killed under the emerging technology. There was a person sitting in the driver’s seat, a standard practice in the experimental phase. Presumably, the job of the human was to slam on the brakes when something like this happens. In a sense, he/she is the co-pilot when the plane is flying on autopilot.

So who is negligent here? The engineers who designed the driverless system, the back-up driver, or the jay-walker? Or is it some combination of these?

Here’s the Time article, but as you know, its in all the papers.

CLT

Category: Civil Litigation, Criminal Law
Tags: Uber driverless cars

If everyone is unhappy is the court dispensing justice?

No. 1,445

Setting the thermostat at 72º is not a bad decision. There are others to consider beside these two outliers, after all. There is no win-win here. But there is a lose-lose. Or is there? One can wear two sweaters, while the other can set up a small fan.

Category: Decision making

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CLIFF TUTTLE has been a Pennsylvania lawyer for over 45 years and (inter alia) is a real estate litigator and legal writer. The posts in this blog are intended to provide general information about legal topics of interest to lawyers and consumers with a Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania focus. However, this information does not constitute legal advice and there is no lawyer-client relationship created when you read this blog. You are encouraged to leave comments but be aware that posted comments can be read by others. If you wish to contact me in privacy, please use the Contact Form located immediately below this message. I will reply promptly and in strict confidence.

Pittsburgh Legal Back Talk

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Judicial Impeachment

Writing for lawyers and everybody else.

Trivial Pursuit

No Garbage Left Behind.

FEARLESS!

Jump Like a Fish, Jump Like a Porpoise, all Join Hands and Habeas Corpus!

Snow Day on the Highway.

Pitt Law Selects New Dean

What duty does a jay-walker have in the age of driverless vehicles?

If everyone is unhappy is the court dispensing justice?

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