Crazy Laws by Dick Hyman (Scholastic, Inc.)

In Pennsylvania, automobiles traveling on country roads at night must send up a rocket every mile, then wait ten minutes for the road to clear.

Preparation of Complaint, Interrogatories and Motion in federal product liability action.

Obtaining copies of appropriate federal and state statutes plus A.L.R. Fed. annotation list.

Obtaining copies of New York statutes session laws for Town Law section from 1902 and on.

Memo Florida attorney malpractice and statute of limitations.

New York - action against landlord for water damage New York tenancy.

Personal guarantee and New York statute of limitations.

National Vaccine Injury Compensation program 42 U.S.C. sec. 300 et seq.

Memo on political asylum in immigration matter.

Memo on clergy malpractice and negligent counseling.

Publications Of Interest

Hoff, Matthew. Tasini v. New York Times: What the Second Circuit Didn’t Say. Albany Law Journal of Science & Technology, 1999, Vol. 10, No. 1.

Donahoe, Diana Roberto. Analyzing the Writer’s Analysis: Will It Be Clear to the Reader? New York Bar Journal, March/April 2000.

Gershman, Bennett L. Use of Race in "Stop-and-Frisk": Stereotypical Beliefs Linger, But How Far Can the Police Go? New York Bar Journal, March/April 2000.

Henrickson, Jennifer A. Jackson v. Benson School Vouchers: Offering an Apple to Private Schools; Creating a Serpent for Public Schools. Chicago-Kent Law Review: 1999, vol. 75, iss. 1.

Preston, Cheryl B. Pornography Suppression in the Larger Context of Commercial Images. Georgia Law Review: Spring 1997, vol. 31, iss. 3.

MATTERS OF INTEREST

U.S. Supreme Court

The appellant’s constitutional right to the effective assistance of counsel was violated and was contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established federal law. Williams v. Taylor (4/18/00).

A Southern Californian school district’s banning of the Ten Commandments advertisement from a fence at a high school baseball field is not unconstitutional. DiLoreto v. Board of Education (4/17/00).

Railroads may not be sued for inadequate warning devices at rail crossings when the devices have been installed and paid for under a federally approved project. Norfolk Southern Railway Co. v. Shanklin (4/17/00).

Without comment, the court left intact a ruling that says Internet service providers are not legally and financially liable when someone is defamed in e-mail communications or bulletin board messages. Lunney v. Prodigy Services Co. -- affirmed without written opinion (5/1/00).

Pending Before Supreme Court

Criminal Law -- Fifth Amendment -- Fourth Circuit holds that 18 U.S.C. sec. 3501, not Miranda v. Arizona, governs the admissibility of confessions in federal courts. United States v. Dickerson, 166 F.3d 667 (4th Cir. 1999), cert. granted, 68 U.S.L.W. 3361 (U.S. Dec. 6, 1999) (No. 99-5525).

Second Circuit

The Court found that in his fervor to speed the proceedings along, the trial judge did not allow the petitioner to present facts which would have prima facially established that the prosecutor’s stated reasons for striking the potential jurors were pretextual. Without this information the trial judge was not in a position to make a proper Batson ruling and a new trial was granted. Jordan v. Lefevre, 2000 WL 287745 (2d Cir. 2000).

Ninth Circuit

A court confronted with a colorable claim of juror bias must undertake an investigation of relevant facts and circumstances. Absent a showing of dishonesty or bias on the part of the juror, it is error to grant a new trial. Pope v. Man-Data, No. 98-36192 (4/18/00).

Fifth Circuit

The standards announced in Daubert control the admissibility of polygraph results. Gibbs v. Gibbs, et al. v. General American Life Ins. Co. (4/22/00).

Mere negligence is not enough to qualify as a clear violation of a party’s constitutional rights. Gros, et al. v. City of Grand Prairie (4/25/00).

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts

A landowner did not owe a duty to warn the plaintiff, who was injured while diving into the shallow end of the defendant’s swimming pool at night, of the dangers of diving into a swimming pool. The Court concluded that diving was an open and obvious danger to a person of average intelligence. O’Sullivan v. Shaw, No. SJC-08081 (4/13/00).

*Note*

The Kentucky Supreme Court suspended a lawyer for 60 days for bad writing. In his defense of a brief the Kentucky Court of Appeals deemed "virtually incomprehensible," the attorney argued that a brief should be valued for its substance over its form. The sloppy brief led the appeals court to dismiss a case brought by attorney’s client. (NLJ 5/15/00).