The Off Topic Topic

[Barrister]

Lawtalkers and others might find this funny. 

http://www.cracked.com/article_19422_6-judges-who-went-completely-insane-bench.html

I liked the section about judges writing their sentences in verse and, one of them in the form of epic fantasy. 

Judge #3 was hardly insane.  The judgment cited in the article (and a few others from the same judge) are legal classics.

http://sls.sa.utoronto.ca/files/Bradshaw.pdf

[HVC]

i'm glad that the phone judge got fired. read the link his excuse was that his wife and he were going through difficulties. he should have been jailed for the same number of days as each person he arbitrarily jailed.

[Malthus]

Lawtalkers and others might find this funny. 

http://www.cracked.com/article_19422_6-judges-who-went-completely-insane-bench.html

I liked the section about judges writing their sentences in verse and, one of them in the form of epic fantasy. 

It never ceases to amaze me that, in my relatively litigation-lite career, I've encountered at least two cases worthy of inclusion on that list ... the Martian Motion and the suit brought by Jesus. 

[Martinus]

The only two stuff of judge silliness I can quote from Poland, that I know of, is a judge quoting "give unto Ceasar" in a ruling about the church's tax exempted status not applying to business activity, and another judge dismissing a claim for slander on the internet due to lack of jurisdiction. The latter thought the claim should have been brought to a court in Warsaw because, I quote, "the registered seat of the internet is in Warsaw". We had this ruling pinned to a "fun wall" at our office for over a year. 

[Barrister]

Well I did get called Machiavellian in court.   

And probably the most famous decision coming from an Alberta court is from the late, great Master Funduk:

[50]                       McDonald is a decision by the Supreme Court of Alberta, Trial Division, now the Court of Queen's Bench. I am bound by decisions of judges of this court unless they have been overruled by our Court of Appeal or the Supreme Court of Canada, or unless there are contrary decisions by judges of this court, in which case I would face a dilemma (which I could probably "solve" by ordering a trial of an issue).

[51]                       Any legal system which has a judicial appeals process inherently creates a pecking order for the judiciary regarding where judicial decisions stand on the legal ladder.

[52]                       I am bound by decisions of Queen's Bench judges, by decisions of the Alberta Court of Appeal and by decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada. Very simply, Masters in Chambers of a superior trial court occupy the bottom rung of the superior courts judicial ladder.

[53]                       I do not overrule decisions of a judge of this court. The judicial pecking order does not permit little peckers to overrule big peckers. It is the other way around.

http://canlii.ca/en/ab/abqb/doc/1989/1989canlii3384/1989canlii3384.html

[Malthus]

Heh, this is a good opening paragraph, quoting Bleak House:

REASONS

[1]   "Jarndyce and Jarndyce drones on. This scarecrow of a suit has, in course of time, become so complicated, that no man alive knows what it means. The parties to it understand it-least; but it has been observed that no two Chancery lawyers can talk about it for five minutes without coming to a total disagreement as to all the premises. Innumerable children have been born into the cause; innumerable young people have married into it: innumerable old people have died out of it. Scores of persons have deliriously found themselves made parties in Jarndyce and Jarndyce, without knowing how or why; whole families have inherited legendary hatreds with the suit. The little plaintiff or defendant, who was promised a new rocking-horse when Jarndyce and Jarndyce should be settled, has grown up, possessed himself of a real horse, and trotted away into the other world. Fair wards of court have faded into mothers and grandmothers: a long procession of Chancellors has come in and gone out; the legion of bills in the suit have been transformed into mere bills of mortality; there are not three Jarndyces left upon the earth, perhaps, since old Tom Jarndyce in despair blew his brains out at a coffeehouse in Chancery Lane; but Jarndyce and Jarndyce still drags its weary length before the court, perennially hopeless."

http://www.canlii.org/eliisa/highlight.do?text=%22bleak+house%22&language=en&searchTitle=Ontario&path=/en/on/onsc/doc/2009/2009canlii68472/2009canlii68472.html

Another Master with too much time on his hands. 

[Ideologue]

There's a lot of sweet semicolons in that text.

[Malthus]

There's a lot of sweet semicolons in that text.

That's Dickens for ya. 

[MadImmortalMan]

Tomorrow is the Day of Rage. :anarchy:

[garbon]

Tomorrow is the Day of Rage. :anarchy:

No one goes to Wall Street on Saturday, so who cares?

[Ideologue]

Every day is a Day of Rage.  It's exhausting.

[Valmy]

Every day is a Day of Rage.  It's exhausting.

Isn't it though?

[Ed Anger]

Maybe I can shoot a hippie.

[Razgovory]

Tomorrow is the Day of Rage. :anarchy:

What are we raging against?

[Ed Anger]

Tomorrow is the Day of Rage. :anarchy:

What are we raging against?

Everything. As long as mommy and daddy's credit card pays for the bandana to cover the face.