COVID-19: Ruminating about Ruminations

“Grandpa, what did you do doing during the war?”
I can imagine a time, a few years down the road, in which a grandchild asks about the COVID-19 pandemic, caused by the virus, we are told on the news day after day, that has “changed everything.”
I won’t have much to say about how I’ve spent the first week or so.
The honest answer: “I slept.”
I’m neither a health-care worker nor the provider of a service that is really all that essential in a public health crisis....
March 25, 2020

Confining the Contagious

It was a scene right out of a thriller. A man diagnosed with an infectious disease walks out of a hospital and is suddenly at large in the community. He is homeless. There is no telling where he went. Officers search for hours, fearing that he is infecting others as he lurches from one location to another.

The man is found, and he is taken into custody.

But it wasn’t fiction. The man in question is a 50-year-old homeless person. He walked out of Yale-New Haven Hospital Sunday night after being diagnosed as infected by COVID-19....
March 25, 2020

Covid19: Tough Questions On The Horizon

Things are getting a little crazy, and, I suspect, they will get crazier by the day until we either get control of the viral infection causing the global pandemic, or, until – gasp – the virus declares victory and extinguishes the last man or woman standing.
But between now and the apocalypse there are lots of intermediate, cost-benefit, decisions to make.
In this past Monday’s New York Times, two physicians and a law professor published a piece entitled, “Doctors May Face Impossible Decisions.” The thesis was...
March 18, 2020

Coronavirus and the Ethics of Civilization

It’s hard not to be anxious just now. A new virus sweeps the globe, killing some, and making many more ill. Never in most of our lifetimes has there been a threat like this. Sure, it’s like 9/11, in some respects, but when terrorists struck we mobilized and united behind fear of another.
Now fear is untethered to time and place. Each day’s news seems to grow darker. Businesses are closed, public institutions shuttered, the news, always given to alarmism, is on overtime, offering both doom and silly tips about how to cope with anxiety. What are we to...
March 17, 2020

Sahsa Baran Cohen Auditions To Become Chinese Censor

November 25, 2019
Forgive me if I am not prepared to sacrifice the right to speak freely to the sensibilities of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and to comedian Sacha...

Fall, or, Dodge in Hell -- The Case for Mortality

August 8, 2019
Suppose money were no object: Would you declare in your will that, upon your death, every effort should be made to preserve your body,...

How Do You Defend Those People?

June 28, 2019
How do you represent those people?
The question is common enough for criminal defense lawyers. In the past few weeks,...

Atkinson v. Facebook: Here's the writ

November 13, 2019
UNITED STATED STATES DISTRICT COURT DISTRICT OF CONNECTICUT
CAMERON L. ATKINSON, Plaintiff, :
v.
FACEBOOK, INC., : MARK...

A Sad Farewell To A Great Judge -- Warren Eginton

October 10, 2019
I understand and accept the syllogism, I really do:
"All men are mortal.
"Mr. X is a man.
"Therefore Mr. X is...

Gov. Lamont's Disastrous Tax On Legal Services

February 20, 2019
Gov. Ned Lamont lives in a bubble, and that bubble is impenetrable. I know this because he was once a potential juror on a criminal case...

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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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