Fall 2023, Vol. 49, No. 3. BOOK REVIEW The Common Flaw: Needless Complexity in the Courts and 50 Ways to Reduce It by Thomas G. Moukawsher Brandeis University Press, 2023. Reviewed by Gary G. Shattuck, Esq. Fifty. As in: Ways to Leave Your Lover; Shades of Grey; Hawaii Five-O; number of American states; years of…
Read MoreThe Common Flaw: Needless Complexity in the Courts and 50 Ways To Reduce It. Moukawsher, Thomas G. The Common Flaw: Needless Complexity in the Courts and 50 Ways To Reduce It. Brandeis Univ. Sept. 2023.240p. ISBN 9781684581641. $29.95. LAW Connecticut complex-litigation judge Moukawsher’s book begins and ends with a critique of the U.S. Supreme Court…
Read MoreDon’t misunderstand Judge Aileen Cannon’s decision Friday to stick to the established May date of the Mar-a-Lago trial. Though it could be read as a defeat for former President Donald Trump, as he wanted to push the date back further, in fact the defendant has just won a partial victory for his top legal strategy — dragging out the cases against him until…
Read MoreLegally, Donald Trump’s Jan. 6 election interference case and Hunter Biden’s gun charge case have more in common than you might think. Whatever the right outcome of each case should be, both cases illustrate exercises in prosecutorial discretion. The use and misuse of this discretion is worth studying. It can signal whether we live under…
Read More
There isn’t a lot of praise circulating for American institutions today. Even though we can see abundant evidence of the shortcomings of alternative systems in Russia, China and elsewhere, too many Americans are buying populist propaganda against their own government. Lately, it’s the courts’ turn. Judges are being denounced as biased, corrupt and incompetent, not…
Read More
Reports of the death of humanity at the hands of artificial intelligence (AI) have been greatly exaggerated. Particularly in court. Yes, AI can help courts manage and interpret data. It has even been used by judges to predict whether a convicted person might offend again. But no, it can’t replace judges. Court decisions involve judgment.…
Read More
Perhaps President Donald Trump has crossed the line with his comments about court proceedings. Or perhaps he hasn’t. Let’s now consider the merits. Regardless of this particular case, judges never have to put up with parties who publicly attack themselves, lawyers, witnesses or prosecutors with lies. In criminal proceedings, the judges have a hammer to wield in…
Read More
Most people with a case in court can’t understand what goes on in a lawsuit and are increasingly unwilling to accept what comes out of it. For reasons unknown to them, the case goes round and round for years without reaching its merits, and then the parties are forced to settle because their money and…
Read More
Forget for a moment whether former President Donald Trump deserves to float or sink amid the waves of lawsuits washing over him. Consider instead what this sea of trouble teaches us about the state of our legal system. Jan. 6, 2021, is more than two and a half years behind us. Yet only now are…
Read More
It’s not your fault. It’s because most decisions are written in a secret formula known to most judges and lawyers but not really understood even by them. The formula has its origin in formalist legal thinking. As you might imagine, formalist legal thinking places the form of a legal ruling over its substance. Judges of…
Read More