John G. Browning News
Legally Speaking: Granted - On One Condition
Judges issue some pretty strange orders sometimes, and often set conditions for bail or parole that boggle the mind.
Legally Speaking: Presiding Over the Court of His Own Opinions
Dallas Judge C. Victor Lander recently ignited a firestorm of controversy over some of his writing � not a ruling or a judicial opinion, mind you, but rather a newspaper column that the judge writes on the side.
Legally Speaking: Strange Times in the Justice System
Things are getting weirder and weirder out there in our legal system. If you don't believe me, just consider some of the following strange episodes that have made news recently:
Legally Speaking: The Greatest Gift
Previously in this column, I've written about lawyers as organ donors.
Legally Speaking: Magic in the Courtroom
For a profession as buttoned-down as the practice of law is generally, it employs a fair number of metaphors drawn from the decidedly less conventional world of magic and magicians.
Legally Speaking: The Memoirs Are Fake, But The Lawsuits Are Real
Remember the old saying "Don't let the truth get in the way of a good story?"
Legally Speaking: Just Following Orders
An order from a court is a serious thing. It may direct the parties to a lawsuit to take certain action, or to refrain from conduct.
Legally Speaking: Expect the Unexpected
I've had my fair share of moments in court dealing with the unexpected, like a witness who suddenly changes his testimony or a long-lost document that mysteriously resurfaces.
Legally Speaking: Lincoln the Lawyer
Feb. 12, 2009, signifies more than just another annual celebration of the birthday of our 16th president � it marks the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth on Feb. 12, 1809.
Legally Speaking: Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction, Part 2 of 2
In last week's column, we looked at some of the stranger legal arguments and defenses that have been raised recently. Sometimes, the sheer irony of the premise of a case is itself stranger than fiction.
Legally Speaking: Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction, Part 1 of 2
Friends and family regularly ask me when I'm going to turn my time and literary energies to writing a courtroom thriller a l� John Grisham.
Legally Speaking: Letters, We Get Letters
One of the benefits of writing a newspaper column is that you know you're always going to provoke a reaction in readers, regardless of whether they make you aware of it or not.
Legally Speaking: Legislators Gone Wild
With the Texas Legislature going back to work this month in Austin, several readers reminded me that while this column has looked at lawyers and judges behaving badly, it hasn't devoted much space to chronicling the foibles of those who actually make the laws.
Legally Speaking: Undercover Mother
If your son or daughter had been wrongly convicted of murder, how far would you go to see that justice was done?
Legally Speaking: Signs That The Apocalypse Is Upon Us
Some prognosticators of gloom and doom point to the predictable signs that the world is coming to an end: global warming, war in the Middle East, economic meltdown and so forth.
Legally Speaking: For Better or Verse? Poetic Justices
In earlier installments of this series ("When Judges Get Cute," "Lyrical Law"), we examined how judges have used song lyrics and humor in writing judicial opinions. In this final segment, we'll look at how judges over the years have employed rhymed verse in their opinions.
Legally Speaking: We Wish You a Merry Lawsuit
The government of Papua New Guinea has an unusual request this Christmastime � it wants more lawyers.
Legally Speaking: Law and the Fog of War, Part II of II
In Part I, we examined the historic application of the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, or MEJA, to Jose Nazario, a decorated ex-Marine, for alleged actions during combat in Iraq in 2004.
Legally Speaking: Law and the Fog of War, Part I of II
With its rich wood paneling, guest gallery, and polished Olympus of a judge's bench, Courtroom No. 1 in the federal courthouse in Riverside, Calif., was unlike any battlefield on which former Marine Corps Sgt. Jose Luis Nazario Jr. had ever found himself.
Legally Speaking: I Can't Make This Stuff Up
As readers of "Legally Speaking" know, I have a fondness for chronicling some of the oddities that pervade the legal system, to the point of recognizing some of the strangest moments in a year-end wrapup.