Komisarjevsky and the Banality of Goodness

I was in New Haven just as day broke. Much to my surprise, there were few media wagons in front of the courthouse on Church Street. Only one ghastly looking antenna reached into the gray morning sky. All at once it struck me: death is now passe.

It was opening day of jury selection in the case of State v. Komisarjevsky, the co-defendant in the brutal home invasion in Cheshire in 2007. When Stephen Hayes was tried last year, it was standing room only in the courthouse lobby when jury selection began. There was a grim sort of determination by the media to cover the case from...
March 16, 2011

Darrow, Love and the Cost of Contentment

"There is no such thing as justice – in or out of court." The words are Clarence Darrow’s. The same Clarence Darrow who once said:"Justice has nothing to do with what goes on in a courtroom. Justice is what comes out of a courtroom."
These are decidedly antinomian sentiments, warranting the H.G. Well’s description of Darrow as a "sentimental anarchist." Taken to their extreme, they suggest that Darrow, lawyer, essayist, orator and social philosopher, was not above suggesting that the ends justified the means. If there is no justice in court, and justice is...
March 16, 2011

A Doctor's Pedophilia; A Hospital's Denial

One could be forgiven for believing that the walls wept in the West Hartford, Connecticut, home of former endocrinologist Dr. George Reardon. The reason for those tears will soon be on public display in a lawsuit filed by one of the nearly 150 plaintiffs against the St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center and Saint Francis Care, Inc., in Hartford. The tears belong to children abused by a doctor the community, and the hospital, trusted. Evidence begins in on April 5 in Waterbury. Dr. Reardon, a bachelor, died in 1998. He was the chief of endocrinology at the Hartford hospital from 1963 to...
March 15, 2011

Reading, Writing and Blogging

Another lost weekend is behind me. It was spent fussing over a manuscript, reading the same words for the umpteenth time, trying to force the garbage out of my prose, and hoping to catch errors before they see the light of day in the form of a book. It strikes me now, and with fury, that there is a difference between blogging and writing.
I’ve been a mad scribbler for many years, My first job after college and graduate school was as an editorial writer. For five years, I wrote opinions that appeared under the masthead of a couple of newspapers. I left newspapers because I did...
March 14, 2011

Victims, Accusers and the Presumption of Innocence

March 12, 2011
Call someone a victim, and they are at once framed in a sympathetic light. Bad things happen to victims, we are drawn to them, wanting to help them...

Oz and the Prosecution

March 11, 2011
Everyone plea bargains in the criminal courts; sometimes the bargaining resolves a case. It is part of the process. But not all parties approach the...

Do I Dare To Eat Your Peach?

March 10, 2011
I understand that times are hard for lawyers statewide. Receipts are down, the public defender’s offices of the state are swamped, and judges...

Rope & Faggot: A Biography of Judge Lynch

March 7, 2011
"It would be a disgrace to us if amongst us men should burn a rattlesnake or a mad dog. The badness of the victim is not an element in the case at...

All Things Shining: The Gods Are Calling

March 7, 2011
If you cannot imagine enjoying, of even finding wise counsel, in a book recommending a return to something like polytheism, you are not alone. I have...

Lawyers, Doctors and Mental Health

March 6, 2011
The law is, and always shall be, a late-comer to any crisis. By the time legal doctrines and rules evolve, take shape and respond to a crisis, the...

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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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