Comments on: Roundup, March 15

By: Montgomery Blair Sibley suspended

Montgomery Blair Sibley suspended — Thu, 15 May 2008 22:48:49 +0000

[…] follies in the Palfrey case and in an earlier 2006 Florida prostitution case; […]

By: Jim Collins

Jim Collins — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 19:04:20 +0000

Bill,
I’ve found out that there is one other advantage to having gone to college. It is a slam dunk to get out of jury duty. I’ve filled out the questionair for Federal jury duty twice and have never gotten a call-up. They even picked numbers past mine (I got a call from the Clerk’s office telling me that my services were not required). The last time I was called up locally I showed up was asked what I did for a living (Mechanical Engineer) and was told thank you see the Clerk for paperwork on my way out.

They don’t want educated people who can think for themselves on a jury. This is true for both the plaintiff and the defendant. They want someone that they can influence. A co-worker told me about his being called for jury duty concerning an aircraft accident. A plane’s propellor struck a “follow me” cart at a small airport, injuring the driver of the cart. He was asked what he did for a living and was accepted when he told them that he was an IT tech. He was almost cited for contempt when he told the other jurors that the driver of the “follow me” cart was improperly trained and that one of the witnesses was full of it. My co-worker had retired from the Air Force as a flight line safety supervisor.

By: William Nuesslein

William Nuesslein — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 13:11:46 +0000

About the $2 million lawn mower verdict:

1) George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley is a dolt. Not just on this case. Every statement that I have ever heard from him has been moronic.

2) How exactly does a child or child’s foot get under the mower? There are perhaps 18 inches from the back wheels on the mower to the blade cover. The machine has to be up that length for the blade cover to get over an obstacle. This might be why these kinds of accidents are so rare. Obviously, Professor Turley, something that is foreseeable before the fact should be understandable after the fact.

By: Bill Poser

Bill Poser — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 19:11:14 +0000

In the med mal case, the post to which you link does not actually say what the reason for challenging the local head of the Chamber of Commerce was, so we don’t know that he was challenged because he or she held that position. It is possible that this was merely intended as an indication that they succeeded in challenging someone who is presumably regarded as an upstanding citizen.