He Changed the World.

No. 730

How many of the billions who have come and gone from this planet can truthfully say,

“I changed it for all time”?

Category: Milestones
Tags: Steve Jobs

Dear Free Lawyer — Answers To Legal Questions For Nothin’.

No. 729

Dear Free Lawyer:

I have to make lots of trips to the bathroom due to one of those conditions that come with age. Am I entitled to get unemployment as a door to door salesman because I can’t do my job?

— Frequent Flyer

Dear Frequent:

Don’t count on it. For one thing, you have to give your employer a chance to make a reasonable accommodation to your condition — like making you a bathroom attendant.

But don’t give up. The frailties of age are offset by experience. As your need for urination increases, so does your knowledge of where the bathrooms are located.

— FL

Dear Free Lawyer:

I’m going to take a cruise to Bermuda. Is it safe to stow a little cannibis in my cabin? After all, if we never take it off the ship, who’s going to know?

— Coral Reefer

Dear Coral:

Not unless you stow a lot of cash in the purser’s safe, too. Bermuda brings sniffer dogs on board to find your pot and the cruise lines let them do it. Consider it a donation to the policeman’s welfare fund.

Dear Free Lawyer:

I’ve been thinking about having a contest for employees in which they guess the next one to be fired. To improve moral. Can I get in trouble for this?

— Boss of the Month

Dear Boss:

Can you say “hostile work environment”?

Dear Free Lawyer:

I sure would like to get in on that Marcellus Shale leasing. But the deed to my farm contained a reservation of gas. Am I outta luck?

— Hard Times

Dear Hard:

Maybe not. The Superior Court has put the question whether the owner of oil and gas owns the Marcellus Shale Gas up for grabs. It may be that the owner of the shale owns the gas in it.

Category: Humor and Satire, News Commentary, Oil and Gas

Happy Birthday to a Great Lawyer.

No. 728

‘Strange as it always seemed to many of his contem- pories Gandhi also carried with him to his dying day the legal outlook which he had imbibed during his early youth when he had studied law in a lawyer’s office in London. This unusual combination of the saint and the lawyer made him often a baffling person with whom to conduct negotiations.’

Biography of Ghandi

Polak, Brailsford and Pethick-Lawrence

1869 – 1948

Category: Great Lawyers

Killing Al-Awlaki.

No. 727

Yes, its true that an American Citizen was assassinated without a trial. But an important but simple principle of law has been overlooked by the critics of American conduct of the War Against Terror. Al Qaida leaders are enemy combatants in the field. While we are at war with Al Qaida, its leaders are fair game under the rules of war.

CLT

Category: News Commentary

The Art of the Objection.

No. 726

Like so many things that lawyers do, stating objections in court requires preparation, experience and skill. If you don’t state your grounds quickly, the damage may be done, even if the objection is sustained. Making frequent objections, especially when they are being overruled, can make you look like an obstructionist and cause the fact-finder(s) to wonder what kind of bombshell evidence you are trying to keep out of the record.

Nevertheless, cases are won and lost on evidence admitted and evidence excluded. Identifying key evidence and framing your objection in advance is how its done. Here’s a link to a short, pithy post in the Lawyerist on the subject. As Horace Rumpole (pictured rising to address the court) might say, we’re just trying to improve your education.

CLT

Category: Civil Litigation, Criminal Law, Evidence, Practice of Law
Tags: Trial Objections

The Light Bulb Goes On . . .

No. 725

Aha Moment No. 725.

Ann Althaus, the law prof from the University of Wisconsin who blogs a lot more about politics than law, quotes a WSJ blog about a prosecution of some oil and gas companies over a bird kill in North Dakota involving 28 avians.

She then wonders out loud whether wind farms are ever prosecuted by those tree-huggers down in Obamaland– to ask the question is to answer it — despite the fact that they kill 440,000 birds every year.

Never thought of it, but who stands a chance when migrating through the likes of this? Murderers!

Category: News Commentary, Oil and Gas

Introducing Third Chair: Pittsburgh

No. 724

The newest blawg in town,

Third Chair:Pittsburgh

has made an great start.

What’s a third chair? Clue: Horace Rumpole (of the Bailey) was a life-long second chair. No, it has nothing to do with the violin section. Read the back pages of this blog (there aren’t many yet) and you’ll find the answer. As your fifth grade teacher always used to say, you’ll appreciate it more if you look it up yourself.

I’m putting Third Chair:Pittsburgh on my blogroll so I can keep an eye on it. You should, too.

CLT

Category: Pittsburgh Legal Back Talk

Lighten Up, Berkley!

No. 723

Free speech seems to have gone out of style in the home of the Free Speech Movement. A new generation of impertinent little bastards has come along and some of them are actually Republicans.

In circa 1969, our left coast contemporaries loved to shock our parents with outrageous pronouncements. Now, some of those incorrigible hippies who took over buildings and shouted things like “up against the wall, *************!”, are running the University of California at Berkley these days and — mirabile dictu — are terrified by a little free speech.

Oh well, that’s the way the cookie crumbles.

Category: Pittsburgh Legal Back Talk

Superior Court Holds that Unauthenticated Text Messages Are Inadmissible.

No. 722

In a case of first impression, the Pennsylvania Superior Court has held that unauthenticated text messages are inadmissible. The police had found text messages containing evidence of a drug deal on a defendant’s cell phone. The Court held that it was hearsay without the same kind of authentication that is required for other documents.

Although this case involved criminal law, the same rule of evidence would apply in civil cases.

One way of authentication might be for the sender or recipient to identify the message on the witness stand. In this case, obviously, neither party was willing to do so.

CLT

Category: Civil Litigation, Criminal Law
Tags: authentication > Rules of Evidence > text messages

Real Estate: Unsung Heroes of the Great Recession.

No. 721

Little note and less recognition has been given to a substantial group of people who have benefitted us all.They are the unsung heroes who have been quietly buying substandard, decaying houses and fixing them up. Without them, there would be a lot more unlivable or barely livable homes in our community. Many more properties would be boarded up or even torn down — useful to no one but vagrants and wild animals.

Yes, of course they are doing it for profit. Charities like Habitat for Humanity deserve praise, but charities cannot possibly rehab our entire substandard housing stock. After all, there are only so many donors of free labor and materials. If we want the job to be done on the scale that it needs to be done, somebody has to get paid. And don’t tell me they are getting rich on the backs of the foreclosed. They didn’t create the foreclosure crisis, but if no one wanted to buy foreclosed houses, so many banks and financial institutions would have failed by now that no one could have predicted the damage.

Too often, by the way, these heroes/public benefactors are treated like criminals by municipal officials and building inspectors who blame them for the urban blight left behind by others. All these short-sighted officials want is a list of repairs accomplished. They fail to see that these entrepreneurs are the solution, not the problem.They fail to appreciate that investors are risking their own money and spending a great deal of time on projects that may never return a cent. But when these projects are successful, as they often are, assessments go up, more taxes are collected, nice people move in who spend money at local business establishments and so on.

I have heard economists on TV declaring that the economy cannot rebound until the massive over-supply of foreclosure properties is greatly reduced. And who do we think is going to bring this condition to pass? Santa?

The next time you see construction crews fixing up a house near you that used to be vacant and run down, talk to the new owner and say thank you.

CLT

Category: Mortgage Foreclosure, News Commentary, Real Estate

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Welcome

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

Legal topics of interest to lawyers and consumers with a Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania focus.

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Categories

He Changed the World.

Dear Free Lawyer — Answers To Legal Questions For Nothin’.

Happy Birthday to a Great Lawyer.

Killing Al-Awlaki.

The Art of the Objection.

The Light Bulb Goes On . . .

Introducing Third Chair: Pittsburgh

Lighten Up, Berkley!

Superior Court Holds that Unauthenticated Text Messages Are Inadmissible.

Real Estate: Unsung Heroes of the Great Recession.

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