The legal system and the lawyers who operate in (and around) it have influenced society and continue to do so today. In this age of the slip-and-fall, “false” advertising, and medical “malpractice,” it’s clear that the quest for justice has not always been easy—it’s also been hilarious, poignant, enlightening, and scandalous. Words from renowned lawyers, not-so-renowned lawyers, judges, authors, politicians, philosophers, and preachers make up this collection of over five hundred memorable, bite-sized quotations about the lives of lawyers; the law; landmark cases; and quips, jokes, and humorous sayings. Included in this diverse compendium are quotations by and about lawyers and law: “The life of the law has not been logic; it has been experience.”—U.S. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. “The law does not pretend to punish everything that is dishonest. That would seriously interfere with business.”—Clarence Darrow “We do not get good laws to restrain bad people. We get good people to restrain bad laws.”—G. K. Chesterton “A lawyer will do anything to win a case—sometimes he will even tell the truth.”—Patrick Murray

Collects over three thousand quotations on such topics as ethics, women, privacy, marriage, the legal system, justice, and words

This bank of clever comebacks will delight you or the lawyer in your life. With more than 1,000 quotes from 500 people, The Ultimate Lawyer Quote Book is the wordsmiths treasure chest of quotable gems. Topics include torts, contracts, ethics, litigation, evidence, and argumentation. Material is sourced from the likes of Melvin Belli, Felix Frankfurter, Hugo Black as well as such non-jurists such as Woody Allen, Winston Churchill, and Oprah!

"litigant n. A person about to give up his skin for the hope of retaining his bones."—Ambrose Bierce

The most clever, sidesplitting collection of lawyer jokes . . . bar...

Precedents are decisions judges have issued in prior cases. In the common law, precedents are used to determine what the outcome of present cases should be, under the doctrine of "stare decisis, "which stipulates that new cases are resolved by applying legal rules developed in the process of deciding past cases. This volume postulates a relationship between the concept of legal precedent and the means that are used to make specific precedents available to the legal profession. The author concentrates specifically on the effect computer databases such as lexis and westlaw will have on the use of precedent in the common law. By tracing the history of law reporting, Professor Brenner demonstrates how the Anglo-American conception of precedent has altered over the past seven hundred years, and that these alterations reflect changes in the means used to distribute precedents. She explains why computers will become the primary means of disseminating precedents and describes the evolution and operation of the two on-line services that provide access to precedents by means of computer terminals and modems. These services--lexis and westlaw-- are operated by private entrepreneurs in the business of providing precedents to the legal profession. Arguing that such services will have a profound effect on the conception and use of precedent, Brenner provides an empirical study of both services to show the effects they have already had, and outlines the conception of precedent that will result from the use of computers as "law reporters." This, she believes, will be a quantitative conception in which judicial decisions will be used in a manner analogous to the use of quantitative data in scientific endeavors. This study, written with a brilliance often reserved for popular writing at its best, is unique in its application of sociology of knowledge principles to the analysis of law reporting in its examination of citations to approximately 25,000 judicial decisions. It will be of special interest to lawyers, sociologists, and policymakers.

From the McDonald's hot coffee case to the cattle ranchers' beef with Oprah Winfrey, from the old English "Assize of Bread" to current nutrition labeling laws, what we eat and how we eat are shaped as much by legal regulations as by personal taste. Barry M. Levenson, the curator of the world-famous (really!) Mount Horeb Mustard Museum and a self-proclaimed "recovering lawyer," offers in Habeas Codfish an entertaining and expert overview of the frustrating, frightening, and funny intersections of food and the law. Discover how Mr. Peanut shaped the law of trademark infringement for the entire food industry. Consider the plight of the restaurant owner besmirched by a journalist's negative review. Find out how traditional Jewish laws of kashrut ran afoul of the First Amendment. Prison meals, butter vs. margarine, definitions of organic food, undercover ABC reporters at the Food Lion, the Massachusetts Supreme Court case that saved fish chowder, even recipes--it's all in here, so tuck in!