Novalawcity

Will We Need Passports to Drive North on 95?

The North Lauderdale City Commission wants to divide Florida into two states - North Florida and South Florida.  See why here.

Where the Bill of Rights and Nigerian spam overlap

Click through to the Indexed blog to find out!

Judge: Kiss my what?!

Nuts and Boalts points to an amusing AP story:

Note to defendants: Don't tell the judge to kiss the body part you sit on.

The South Carolina Court of Appeals has upheld a judge's contempt order against a St. Matthews woman who signed a court document with just such an instruction and told a probation officer to return the document to the judge.

Circuit Judge Diane Goodstein found Judith Law in contempt and ordered her to serve 90 extra days. Law challenged the ruling, saying the contemptuous behavior happened outside the judge's view.

Does Santa's naughty/nice database violate the European Convention on Human Rights?

Outlaw.com, the blog of UK firm Pinsent Masons, recently did a series of posts examining Santa Claus's compliance with EU and UK legislation.  The results don't look good for the man in red.  Check out these stories:

• Santa: environmental catastrophe?
• Santa's hiring policies may discriminate
• Reckless Santa could cause yuletide chaos, warn experts
• Santa ignores children's refund rights, warn experts
• Santa putting children's information at risk, warn experts

Santa hat tip to Information Overlord.

Need a laugh?

The Ross-Blakley Law Library Blog has compiled a list of sites featuring lawyer jokes and legal humor. Laughter is a great stress reliever, so if you need a quick break from finals stress and studying, check them out.

Items for your holiday wish list

Need to add to your holiday wish list? Check out these fun mugs featuring lawyer comics.  Perhaps the shark jokes mug would be great for members of the NSU Law community tired of people pointing out the humor of our university mascot?

For more ideas, check out Reid Trautz's 2007 Holiday Gift Guide for Lawyers, which includes only a couple law-specific items in a list of gadgets, toys, and even an animatronic Elvis. Trautz notes "not a tie, gavel, or kitschy brass scales on this list!"

And finally, the perfect gag gift for the overworked law student who can take a joke: Mental Floss's Law School in a Box. It comes "jam-packed" with a booklet called Law School in 96 pages, Heroes of the Courtroom trading cards, "You Be the Judge" dilemma scenarios, a mini-bar exam, and a diploma "with real Latin words."

Thanks to Ernie  the Attorney and WisBlawg for the tips!

New Acquisition: The Dictionary of Legal Bullshit

I laughed out loud when I saw The Dictionary of Legal Bullshit on the cart of new acquisitions in our administrative offices.  Yes, it really exists, and it will soon be available for check out to patrons of the Law Library & Technology Center.  Attorney and writer Randall C. Young has compiled a fun collection of plain English explanations of famous cases, legal Latin, and other high falutin' terminology used by members of the legal profession.  Here are a few of my favorites:

headnote. A statement in which Thomson West Publishing Company's editors explain a one-hundred-page decision in one h undred words.

hornbook. A non-prescription sleep aid.

jurisprudence. Something that exists only so long as we have prudent jurists.

obiter dictum. Desultory passages of judicial decisions in which judges reveal their opinion of themselves.

quash. The coolest word in the legal lexicon. Half the subpoenas issued have been challenged just to give the lawyer an excuse to say "quash."

stare decisis. Latin for "being a United States Supreme Court justice means never having to say you're sorry."

wise guy. One who is a participant in organized crime.  The term mafioso fell out of favor as progressive criminal enterprises embraced the virtues of ethnic diversity.

At the end of the book, Young has written "an abridged taxonomy of lawyers" including the think-they-know-it-alls, the crusaders, and the rednecks in white collars; a short list of songs featuring lawyers; and a directory of pre-eminent law firms.  Somehow, Car Talk counsel Dewey, Cheetham, & Howe was left out of the latter!

Want more? Check the new book cart behind the reference desk in a few days.

World's Weirdest Cases

As a teaser for a new column that will focus on weird legal cases, Professor Gary Slapper, director of the UK Open University Centre for Law, compiled twenty of his favorite weird cases for the Times Online.  Many of them focus on sex, but there is also the man who sued a TV station for making him smoke and his family obese, an astrologer who sued NASA for violating the balance of the universe, and a man who sought legal permission to name his son @.

Enjoy!