Insurance Claim1

Have you ever met someone who claims it's someone else's fault?   I hear it at least once every day. Bad judge.  Bad lawyer. Bad opposing counsel.  Bad "legal" system.  Bad, bad, bad - it's everyone else's fault they they keep losing. Take, for instance, the couple who came in the other day.  Seems they had had a business selling tchotchkes online.  Seems their supplier had shorted them a couple hundred items on an order (they're looking at maybe $200 in damages) and so filed suit for breach of contract. Simple small claims action.  But no.  Couple was out for blood - so they sued for $150,000 and costs of suit.  Standard prayer for damages IF your damages were significant enough to sue in Superior Court (which, in couple's case, they weren't). So, couple hunts around on Google for a sample complaint, files it and......the court grants a demurrer with leave to amend their complaint.   Couple is angry but they hunt arou...

Have you ever bought a new car and just fell in love with it?  I mean, LOVE it, you do.  You name it, baptize it, send out notices to all your friends that you're in a new relationship, take Christmas card photos with your car. LOVE IT, you do. We had this guy come into the library the other day that just LOOOOOOOVED his car.  I mean, just...wow...he was nuts about his car; couldn't say enough good things about it.  Turns out, he had driven it off the lot a couple months before. He and the dealer had done up the paperwork and the dealer said they'd take care of the financing - and off he drove with his new love. Fast forward a couple months and guy is standing in front of me telling me that the dealer called him today and told him that if he didn't return the car immediately, that they would file grand theft charges against him. Really?  Grand theft?  Dang, but I thought that only the District Attorney could do that!? After a little discus...

You ever feel like you have no clue what to do next?  You've worked hard all your life, planned, schemed, and plotted and are still at a point where you're stuck?  Happens all the time at my LAW library. Yesterday, in fact, I had a newly minted lawyer come into our LAW library. Seems new lawyer had recently passed the kafe but try as he might, he could not get a job at a law firm and so decided to put out his own shingle.   Problem was, while law school taught theory to help with passing the kafe exam, what he needed now was practice (or tools of a practical nature).   I suspected he was kicking himself for not paying more attention in his Legal Research and Writing class.  Yeah, that would have really helped him out now (in the real world). Anyway, I could see the fear in his eyes as he roamed our halls. Heck, I could smell it and he was really freaking out since he had just accepted a new client in a personal injury case and he didn't know where ...

Have you ever had the experience where you are talking to a group of people and someone doesn't believe you and they say "prove it?"  I mean, the gall of some people. What is helpful, in those situations is if someone is standing there and they've got your back saying, "no, she speaks the truth" (thereby shutting down the naysayers). Yep, always nice to have someone watching your back.  Of course, this all brings us to our word of the month: CORROBORATION .  According to Black's Law Dictionary , CORROBORATION means: 1. Confirmation or support by additional evidence or authority (corroboration of the witness's testimony).  2. Formal confirmation or ratification.  3. Confirmation or support by additional evidence of the date of invention or of a trademarks first use. So, a funny thing.  The other day I was looking at this definition and while I was thus looking, a young lady came up to me asking an intellectual property issue. Seems Young ...

So, barreling down the road on my way to work this morning, I happened to glance to my right and I see this young woman tugging on a very,  very  short skirt whilst attempted to put money in a parking meter.  I'm thinking...if you're embarrassed that you don't have enough material to hide your bare legs (and near-bare bottom), you might want to consider wearing a longer dress.   I'm just sayin. Of course, this brought to mind an embarrassing situation involving a young attorney who came in our library a while back.  Seems Young Attorney was preparing to file a complaint in Superior Court.   Simple enough.  Prepare the complaint , the civil case cover sheet , proof of service , that sort of thing. Of course, I tried to tell Young Attorney about the three things he needed but being young AND an attorney, he kinda didn't have any patience to listen to an omnipotent law Librarian. So, the FIRST time Young Attorney went to t...

Like any career, being a law Librarian means that we are often called upon to do things that we really don't like doing. One of those things is having to listen to people who don't have a lawsuit, knowing that they don't have a lawsuit, and not being able to say to them, "YOU REALLY DON'T HAVE LAWSUIT!" This brings us to the guy who got mad because someone tried to kick him out of his local social club. Guy got miffed because a fellow member tried to kick guy out of the club over an event that occurred outside of a club meeting. OK, never a good thing to bag on someone, but what is done is done, right?   Well, maybe not so much done since guy went and filed a defamation action against the other guy. Years drag on and on and finally the case is ready to go to trial.  Guy insists that that he has a case and chews on my ear for hours and hours until I've had my fill and say, "ENOUGH! Hurt feelings do not (or should not) a lawsuit make.  Just be...

You may not know this about me but I teach legal research classes to/for the public.  Really dig it, I do.  What I really like is working with people who are hungry for information. I can work with people like that.  What I can't deal with is whiners who complain that legal research is too hard. Thing is, the first time you do anything it's hard.   Nothing new, there. Take, for example, the Beatnik (a real hip and happening dude) who came into the law library the other day. Beatnik starts with the world is out to get him and how he doesn't know anything about legal research and would someone just do the work for him?! My answer(s) to him: Yes, it is, that's probably true, and no, I won't.   What I will do is help you out along the way.  Turns out Beatnik is fighting with his neighbor.  Seems neighbor has chickens that squawk at all hours of the day and the rooster starts sounding off around 3AM.   No amount of pleading will get neig...