Most lawyers were torn between wincing and laughing when a lawyer filed a brief packed with case authority created out of whole cloth by an AI bot. Meanwhile, a segment of the bar is fretting that we will be replaced by powerful artificial intelligence. My concern, based on a couple of casual forays into AI, […]
When Laws Collide, You Need The Right Word
As lawyers, words are our stock in trade. If we want to describe, explain, or persuade, we need to use the right word. The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter – ’tis the difference between the lightning-bug and the lightning. MARK TWAIN I was blown away […]
Siegel, Claim Preclusion & Me
I’ve been having nightmares about the 9th’s Circuit’s decision in Siegel for 20 years. Broad strokes, Siegel (143 F.3d 525 (9th Cir. 1998) holds that a filed claim in a no asset bankruptcy case to which no one objects is entitled to preclusive effect in subsequent litigation by reason of Bankruptcy Code §502. In Siegel, […]
One Trait Makes A Bankruptcy Lawyer Great
One trait makes a bankruptcy attorney stand out. Bankruptcy forms promote the view that filing a case is just recording what the debtor owns and owes today. If all you focus on is the here and now, you can assemble a bankruptcy petition. But if there is one, uniform failing in average bankruptcy lawyers, it’s that […]
Why Your Bankruptcy Client Doesn’t Understand You (And How To Fix the Problem)
Bankruptcy terminology, so familiar to lawyers, stymies clients. Even common English words seem to flumox our clients. We are a pair, divided by our common language. Even without legal jargon, we talk past each other. Words at war How do we misunderstand each other? Let me count the ways: Property: I don’t have any property, […]
Hearsay Exception: How Do I Get This Into Evidence?
Quick: tell me everything you know about Federal Rule of Evidence 803(17)! If you’re like me, there’s deafening silence. I’ve apparently skated through forty years of bankruptcy practice without really considering how Kelly Blue Book figures get into evidence. If it worked, I just went on. (Hint: it’s FRE 803(17). But a change in California […]
Objection: Hearsay
There you are, client on the witness stand, jury in the box, story being told on direct exactly the way you prepared her, things going just swimmingly. And then opposing counsel stands and utters those two lovely words…”Objection, hearsay.” Huh? That’s ridiculous, you confidently think to yourself, just as you hear the trial judge say, […]
