Unlocking the Door
To unlock a door, there’s a single key––specifically cut, shaped, and contoured to fit an exact specification. All other conjectures and approximations, even if razor-thin close, will simply not work. Exerting additional force, pressing strongly back and forth, forcefully twisting and turning––a complete waste of time. Winning arguments, tailor made to fit the specific case, […]
Sight Lines of the Third Eye
Which point of view is most persuasive? There’s seeing the case from the “inside” point of view of the injured party, the Plaintiff. There’s seeing the case from the “inside” point of the view of the responsible harm-inducing party, the Defendant. And then there’s seeing the case from the “outside” point of view of a […]
Contemplating the Obvious
We’ve all experienced instances where an obvious sign has been missed. Notwithstanding our most careful scrutiny, something obvious gets neglected or ignored. It’s present, it’s visible, but we cannot recognize it. Psychologists have a name for this––inattentional blindness. “Inattentional blindness, also known as perceptual blindness, is a psychological lack of attention that is not associated with […]
On the Art of Small, Incremental Improvement
Simple tasks would at first glance seem to be resistant to dramatic improvement. They are routine, relatively uncomplicated, and the end result does not appear to be readily susceptible to noticeable change. After all, in how many different ways can a basic task be accomplished? Small libraries have actually been written about this: everything from […]
The Supremacy of Facts
The typical case is fact-specific where the outcome turns on the precise circumstances involved. Large ideas—the right to privacy, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, etc.—really do not play that important a role. The finder of fact is more interested in answering a simple question—what actually happened? But at the appellate level courts routinely have […]
