Best of ‘Legally Speaking': Festivus for the rest of us?
This “Legally Speaking” column was first published in the Southeast Texas Record on Dec. 18, 2012 Every year, it seems there are high-profile civil liberties lawsuits in which municipalities are...
View ArticleLegally Speaking: Judges you’d like to read
Let’s face it—when we usually think of judges, we think of them as little more than stern, humorless authority figures, perpetual bearers of a dour expression as if to remind all onlookers of the...
View ArticleLegally Speaking: Did that really just happen?
The bizarre twists and turns that the legal world takes would make a great Formula One race course. If you don’t believe me, then just consider the following strange offerings from the justice system....
View ArticleLegally Speaking: Awards we’d like to see
Readers of “Legally Speaking” know that I delight in finding some of the most bizarre, did-that-really-happen moments in actual court cases in the civil and criminal justice systems. Some of the more...
View ArticleLegally Speaking: Did they really say that?
I thought I’d seen just about everything in my 25 years of practicing law. Motions challenging the other side to a fistfight, personal insults hurled during depositions, judicial orders imposing a...
View ArticleLegally Speaking: Is that really a contract?
From time to time, I’ve had an opposing party claim that he was going to “wipe his backside” with a legal document like a contract. Rude, yes, but what if a contract was actually written on toilet...
View ArticleLegally Speaking: More wacky warning labels and other legal weirdness
It’s that time of year again when the Center for America releases the winners of its Wacky Warning Label contest. Browning Yes, nothing demonstrates how ridiculous and overlawyered our society has...
View ArticleLegally Speaking: Can’t we all just get along?
The courtroom is not supposed to be a violent place. After all, our modern system of justice where parties resolve their disputes before an impartial third party (the judge) and/or a jury of their...
View ArticleLegally Speaking: You say Grenada, I say Granada and other true tales of...
Have you ever had the fear while boarding a plane of being on the wrong flight and winding up at a completely different destination? American dentist Edward Gamson now knows what it feels like. Gamson...
View ArticleLegally Speaking-Lawyers Doing Good (Part II)
Some of the ways in which lawyers do good for the community are geared toward hope for a better future — such as raising money for charity, men Browning toring others or building houses with Habitat...
View ArticleLegally Speaking: Lawyers doing good (Part I)
The legal profession, to the surprise of no one, gets more than its fair share of bad publicity. Lawyers are maligned for a variety of reasons, and when one of us gets in trouble, the media and the...
View ArticleLegally Speaking: Real life law — even stranger than fiction
No matter what kind of plot twists, turns, and unexpected, you-didn’t-see-this-one-coming moments that you may see on television legal dramas like “The Good Wife,” they will never compare to the...
View ArticleLegally Speaking: Even stranger than fiction
There is a lot of weirdness in the legal system, with strange-but-true figures and events that even a fiction writer would be prone to dismiss as too outlandish. If you don’t believe me, just check out...
View ArticleLegally Speaking: Watch what you say, and when you say it
Lawyers have gotten the nickname “mouthpieces” for a very good reason — people can get themselves into a lot of trouble for what they say. This is especially true in criminal cases, where there is a...
View ArticleLegally Speaking: The rapping lawyer and other true tales
Readers often ask if some of the more bizarre cases, litigants, and lawyers featured in “Legally Speaking” are made up. They’re not. Browning Not only am I not creative enough to come up with such...
View ArticleLegally Speaking: The lighter side of the law, Part II
Just before the start of Lent and all the Mardi Gras revelry, I saw a reminder of the amusing absurdities that characterize the legal system. On the box containing Mardi Gras King cake (which, of...
View ArticleLegally Speaking: The lighter side of the law-Part I
As I make my way through the day to day drudgery that usually characterizes the legal system, it is easy to overlook the humorous moments that happen—and believe me, they do happen. Just consider the...
View ArticleLegally Speaking: The element of surprise
In many aspects of life, there’s something to be said for the element of surprise, whether it’s catching your spouse off guard with an unexpected gift for no reason, or simply changing up your usual...
View ArticleLegally Speaking: What I love about Texas
Texas troubadours like Pat Green and Lyle Lovett have expressed their love of Texas in song, with lyrics waxing nostalgic over everything from honky-tonks to tubing down the Guadalupe River. Browning...
View ArticleLegally Speaking: The power of belief
Belief can be a powerful thing. Sometimes, the law will, under certain circumstances, show deference to that belief, such as the individual who recently persuaded the Department of Motor Vehicles to...
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