Another Reason to Be Wary of the State -- Your Kids

If your child suffers a serious unexplained injury, the state just might seek to terminate your parental rights. It will do so in a closed courtroom, where the public never gets the right to know what passes for justice.
Termination of parental rights is the moral equivalent of the death penalty. A court can transform you into a stranger to your child, having no more right to raise her, or even see her, than you do a child one thousand miles away whose name you’ll never hear. Your children will be given to strangers to raise.
These cases are uniquely heartbreaking.
In...
April 29, 2016

Trump and Sanders? Yes

Donald Trump walked away from the so-called "Acela primaries" in the Northeast a complete winner, sweeping the Republican contests in Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island in convincing fashion. All eyes are now focused on Indiana, where Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has declared war: If Trump can defeat Cruz at the Hoosier Alamo, will Cruz yield?
That's about as likely as Bernie Sanders' folding his tent, despite the near impossibility of his securing the Democrat nomination: Hillary Clinton has it all but locked up. Yet there's little joy over the prospect of another...
April 29, 2016

Troubling Decision in Sandy Hook Gun Suit

On December 14, 2012, Adam Lanza, a troubled young man, walked into an elementary school and killed or seriously wounded more than two-dozen people, most of them children. He used an AR-15 rifle, a killing machine manufactured by Bushmaster Firearms International LLC. Military and law enforcement officers use the weapon in their work.
Few civilians actually hunt for game with the weapon. It kills so savagely it would destroy the meat a hunter might want to eat.
Why did Adam Lanza have the gun?
The simple answer is that his mother bought it and either gave it to him as a...
April 22, 2016

Sticky-Fingered Cops

State and federal law enforcement agencies make millions of dollars each year manipulating asset forfeiture laws. Generally, these laws permit seizure of items -- including houses, cash and cars -- that are the fruits or instrumentalities of a crime. If forfeited, the funds, whether cash or liquidated property, typically go to police departments.
Lawmen are plenty aggressive when it comes to seizing money, and prosecutors are often aggressive in perfecting these claims. By an odd twist of law, one needn’t be convicted of a crime to lose assets.
...
April 15, 2016

Civil Gideon A Rotten Idea

April 7, 2016
I was in court the other day when I erupted in a tone loud enough to be overheard by others: "You know, Aristotle once said that it is hard to be...

A Devastating Loss

April 7, 2016
“Angel came down from heaven yesterday; she stayed with me just long enough to rescue me.” The words are Jimi Hendrix’s. I’ve...

What's The Harm In A Book Of Prayer?

March 31, 2016
I’m at a loss to explain to my client why she cannot have the book I sent her. But it is so. The warden will not permit her to accept a Daily...

Hulk Hogan and St. Augustine's Pears

March 24, 2016
Erin Andrews and Hulk Hogan have me wondering about St. Augustine’s pears. Is something like a meaningful sense of sin taking...

David Brooks, Donald Trump and the Magic Mirror

March 22, 2016
I’m thinking of sending David Brooks of The New York Times a scholarship. I’d like him to attend Gerry Spence’s Trial...

Criminal Defense Lawyers Need Not Apply -- Again

March 17, 2016
Merrick Garland, eh?
Throw that fish back. He’s just more of the same. We need a new kind of justice on the Supreme Court. We need...

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Taking Back the Courts
Norm Pattis Taking Back the Courts

The Wizard of Oz was one of my favorites movies as a kid. Little did I know judges were so much like the wizard, hiding behind empty trappings of power. This book tells you things you need to know about what really goes on in court. Read it, weep, and then demand that the courts do better.

In the Trenches
Norm Pattis In the Trenches

Plenty of lawyers write about the law, but few who write try cases. Judge for yourself whether I talk the talk and walk the walk in this collection of occasional essays about life in the law's trenches.

Juries and Justice
Norm Pattis Juries and Justice

How prepared are you to take seriously the notion that 'we the people' are, in fact, sovereign? Discover the secret, and unused, power of jurors. 'Ask why; then nullify.'

Norm Pattis

About Norm

Norm Pattis is a Connecticut based trial lawyer focused on high stakes criminal cases and civil right violations. He is a veteran of more than 150 jury trials, many resulting in acquittals for people charged with serious crimes, multi-million dollar civil rights and discrimination verdicts, and scores of cases favorably settled.

© Norm Pattis is represented by Elite Lawyer Management, managing agents for Exceptional American Lawyers
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