Time To Return To The City?

I suspect that my days as a country lawyer are numbered. The economy is that bad. Although I have only anecdotal information to support the following hypothesis, I believe it nonetheless to be true: the middle class has run out of cash. We see this in the tones of despair with which potential clients respond when it comes time to talking about a fee.
No one really plans on the sort of trouble that leads folks to the door of a criminal defense or civil rights lawyer. Most folks are struggling to get by one day, one paycheck, at a time. When trouble comes sweeping down and knocks them...
February 28, 2011

Consensual Consequences

Reform of sex offender legislation will most likely not take place in the courts. Real change will come in the form legislation. Lawmakers need to be taught the consequences of the laws they pass. They need to learn these lessons from those targeted by the laws. Hence, I say every lawmakers in the United States, that includes lawmakers at the state and federal level, should be mailed a copy of Lynn Gilmore’s Consensual Consequences.
Gilmore is married to a registered sex offender. Her book is the story of how one family lives on the other side of the libidinal line separating...
February 27, 2011

Who Is Scott Walker?

Who is Scott Walker? The question should be on the lips of every American who has lost a home, a job, or a sense that the American Dream is something worth pursing. The question might yield the significance of the disappearing elite’s refrain in Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged -- Who is John Galt? Walker is a visible symbol, a dupe if you will, of the plutocrat’s vision of America, a land in which a tiny sliver of the population prospers while ever larger segments of the population are driven to their knees in economic despair.
Who is Scott Walker? Why, the question...
February 27, 2011

A Government Afraid Of Conscience

I wonder what the Government told grand jurors in the case of United States of America versus Julian P. Heicklen. The 78-year-old retired college professor was indicted on charges of jury tampering. He was charged under a statute designed and intended to make it a crime to try to influence a juror engaged in the heady business of deciding whether a person is or is not guilty of the crime charged.
Here is the operative language of the statute, 18. U.S.C. Section 1504, that Heicklen is accused of violating: “Whoever attempts to influence the action or decision of any...
February 25, 2011

Why I Am A Hypocrite

February 24, 2011
The importance of hypocrisy cannot be overstated. We live by it, learn by it, and, I suspect, die firmly in its grip. Experience makes a mockery of...

A Welcome Relief

February 23, 2011
My daughter, who shall be granted anonymity here, sent an email moments ago from New Zealand relaying that all is well. I am contacting Interpol to...

A Welcome Relief

February 23, 2011
My daughter, who shall be granted anonymity here, sent an email moments ago from New Zealand relaying that all is well. I am contacting Interpol to...

Christchurch Revisited

February 23, 2011
It seems like a long, long time ago that I first received word of this week's earthquake centered in Christchurch, New Zealand, but a woman I love,...

Updated -- Christchurch, and a Long, Long Night

February 21, 2011
Odds are she is fine. The overwhelming odds are she will return home with stories to tell, a braver and wiser young woman now for having witnessed...

Tague v. Emory: Two Peas In A Pod

February 21, 2011
I don’t know if Muskegon County Prosecutor Tony Tague is a humorless prick. He might just be stupid. Or mean. Or perhaps he is a representative...

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Books

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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