A Higher Activity
Two colors almost identical. Two words almost synonymous. Two sounds almost indistinguishable. How to distinguish? When we set about to “distinguish” two or more items or objects, thoughts or ideas, we’re looking for what separates them, some way of placing them into separate classifications or categories. Some questions to ask when you’re about to distinguish […]
Advocacy by Algorithm
Legal method, defined as advocacy, presentation, or persuasion, is due for an upheaval. One trend that’s emerging—artificial intelligence. Brief writing in a matter of minutes rather than hours, gathering, summarizing and presenting data in seconds rather than weeks, even crafting the most persuasive verbal patterns of sound and speech––all will be shaped and affected by […]
Flow Transference
States of mind are fluid, and maintaining the right frame of mind is not something that necessarily arises naturally. It requires thought, insight––something akin to the flicking on of a light switch. It can also arise by other means. We’ve all heard the term “being in the zone.” In his well-known book, Flow: The Psychology […]
The Edge of Impossibility
“The first discipline is to focus your finest effort on the one or two goals that will make all the difference, instead of giving mediocre effort to dozens of goals,” write Chris McChesney, Sean Covey, and Jim Huling in their book The 4 Disciplines of Execution: Achieving Your Wildly Important Goals. A contested case will […]
Not So Simple
Things are not so simple. We know this when we’re in the presence of a child. Three questions––that’s all it takes. While in a car with a parent, a seven–year old child might ask: why do we age? “Because as time passes, we grow older.” The child asks: why? “Because our cells, our DNA, sustain […]
A Surface Abnormality
The law of Illinois permits recovery for “disfigurement,” typically meant to refer to scars, but it can also mean any traumatically–caused mark, blemish, or other physical deformity. In a personal injury lawsuit, scars should be worked up as carefully as any other element of damage. Photographic evidence documenting the initial injury and stages of healing; […]
Navigating the Maze
All human–created systems––e.g., educational, economic, legal––have a design. These design characteristics vary, with some aspects being welcoming, beneficial; other aspects, not so much. We tend to focus on design flaws because of how easily they intrude into our consciousness and make themselves known. A maze is a path or collection of paths, typically from an entrance […]
Next Level Preparation
Webster defines preparation as “the action or process of making something ready for use or service or of getting ready for some occasion, test, or duty.” They are layers of preparation. To help explain, let’s use the layers of the human skin as a guide.Epidermis. The skin’s surface. Merely examining the surface of a subject […]
Three Questions
Do law professors still write about tort law? In the academy, the tendency is to elevate one’s writing to the more rarefied atmosphere of pure theory. But tort law beckons: it’s a rich sedimentary deposit of granite and limestone, silica and sand, an archeological excavation which must be performed with great delicacy. So, for the […]
Who’s There
The cross–examiner strives for a simple signpost to guide the way. In the welter and chaos of words and counter–words, of branches and leaves, how to carve out a clear path forward? In a multilayered case, complexity can seem to render reality inexplicable, impenetrable. Thus, the search for that one short phrase which encapsulates the […]
