Courts have to earn trust now every day with efficiency and fairness | Hartford Courant

  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…

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Judges don’t have to put up with litigants’ sniping in the media | The Hill

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…

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The Needless Complexity of Our Courts | Governing

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…

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Humanism Should Replace Formalism In The Courts | Law360

Contemporary American judges have more in common with Medieval monks than just wearing robes. Today’s courts are dominated by formalists. After reviewing decisions from the last several months—about guns, abortion, and industrial pollution—they remind me of work by the 13th and 14th Century scholastics, dominated by the monks who dictated thinking in Europe prior to…

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