Strictly Legal

     In film and television, the concept of the conjugal visit is well known, often portrayed for humorous effect. For example, Arrested Development featured a conjugal visit between George Sr. and Lucille (and Kitty) in the Season 1 episode “Visiting Ours.”  Although you might be familiar with the term you may not know where the word “conjugal” comes from—and whether such visits really occur as a regular part of prison life.     To clear up the first question, conjugal is actually derived from Latin (surprise, surprise). The word conjugare means to join together in marriage; that word is in turn derived from com (“together”) and jugare (“yoke”). So for all you marriage haters, here’s evidence that even in ancient times, marriage was considered akin to having a yoke placed around your neck. This definition further suggests that the modern conjugal visit is extended only to an inmate’s spouse, although in practice that varies (as discussed below).      Turning

Hello podcast listeners! New episode should be available on iTunes within the next 24 hours, based on my Fighting Words article from April 2011.Thank you for listening and reading! Now that I'm settled in California, look for a new article soon on class action lawsuits (a.k.a. why lawyers had to save you from eating too much Nutella):-ann

Google “shortest celebrity marriages,” and the top results all mention Kim Kardashian, who famously announced that she was filing for divorce after just 72 days of wedded bliss.  Much more interesting than the Kardashian/Humphries union, however, is the seldom discussed 32-day marriage of Ernest Borgnine and Ethel Merman.  The reasons behind their split run the gamut from accusations that Merman’s ego was bruised by Borgnine’s greater fame to the allegation that Borgnine subjected Merman to the dreaded “Dutch Oven.” (Yikes!)  But whatever the real reasons behind its demise, Borgnine and Merman’s union was undoubtedly one of the more volatile in Hollywood history.Now, you might be wondering why Kardashian and Borgnine filed for divorce instead of seeking an annulment.  Among the uninitiated (read: never-divorced), an annulment seems like a quick and easy way to end a short-lived marriage.  In reality, annulment can be a complicated legal procedure and even harder to obtain than a

It is a truth universally acknowledged--at least by those in certain professions--that everyone lies. Everyone.Doctors know this. “Do you smoke?” they ask. “No,” the patient replies, when she really means, “Only when I’ve been drinking with my girlfriends who smoke, and I bum a smoke, but they only smoke Marlboro Lights.”Piano teachers know this. “Did you practice this week?” they ask. “Yes!” the student replies, when she really means, “For the forty-five minutes before I came to this lesson, and only because my mom made me.”And, of course, lawyers know this. Whether it’s clients, witnesses, opposing counsel, even (gasp) judges, everyone lies. Or omits the truth. Or shades the facts. It’s human nature; there are no Honest Abes.Nonetheless, although most people (whether they want to consciously acknowledge it or not) realize that everyone lies at least some of the time, lying is a crime in our society. So much so, that certain crimes are categorized based on the element of lying they contain.  The Latin t

On May 1st, President Barack Obama announced to the world that U.S. forces had killed Osama bin Laden.  Among the predictable reactions was a large dose of skepticism, especially when the White House later briefed that bin Laden had been buried at sea.  Naysayers across the globe demanded proof, namely photos or videos of bin Laden’s body. As of this writing, President Obama has decided not to release the purportedly grisly photographs.The clamor to see “the body” reminds me of the term corpus delicti.  It is derived from Latin for body (corpus) and crime (delictum), so literally it means “the body of the crime.”  As a legal term, corpus delicti has evolved to mean the body of evidence to prove a crime. So, for homicide it could be a literal corpus (but doesn’t have to be—more on that later).  In other instances, however, the corpus delicti could be evidence like stolen items (for larceny) or a torched house (for arson).  Many state jurisdictions still follow the common law corpu

My office building is downwind from a Love’s Bakery. In case you didn’t know, Love’s is “[t]he largest wholesale baker of original and distributed breads, bunds, donuts and pies in Hawaii.” (Don’t ask me what a “bund” is--that quote is direct from their website.) At any rate, those breads and bunds and whatever else they’re baking smell absolutely amazing. As I drove past Love’s tonight on my way home, I thought about bread, and flour, and a certain Mr. Byrne of Liverpool, England. About 150 years ago, Byrne was walking along Scotland Road when a barrel of flour fell from a second floor window and knocked him out. Apparently he had been walking by the window of the defendant’s shop (Mr. Boadle, I presume), who just happened to be a “dealer in flour.” Naturally, Byrne filed a lawsuit against Boadle to get some quid for his troubles. After all, barrels of flour aren’t just supposed to fall out of windows, right? Well, what seems like an easy question to answer wasn’t so easy for the Exchequer Court in 1863. To