The Criminal Law Handbook: Know Your Rights, Survive the System
by Paul Bergman
Edition: Paperback
Not as legendary as its Civil cousin., August 3, 2006
Although the style of the book mimics that of "Represent Yourself In Court" by the same author, its substance is quite thin. It does not seem that sticking with a particular style had helped the author in this case. Many definitions are lacking, both in the body of chapters and in the index. Under the topic "theft" for example, the act of forgery is inferred from misrepresentation or conversion. Then the topic is cut short as if the author had suffered fatigue. Attempting to study a specific topic in criminal law would not get you too far by this book. The stories and examples also did not help make the book useful. Too many stories blunt the flow of thoughts when attempting to follow the logic of specific legal entity. Since the book is not intended of do it yourself manual, the author is less effective in presenting an attractive reference by adopting his particular style of examples, bulleted items, and summation tables. Or, may be the area of criminal law is too specialized for amateurs. Its historical analysis of how the criminal law grew, is also less attractive by virtue of its reliance of stories and large white space that make it hard to sum up historical landmarks in a concise length of paragraphs. There is little if any logical flow from one chapter to the other. That is not the case with its cousin, where one expects and finds subsequent chapters and subchapters very well connected and leading to a coherent outcome.
How and When to be Your Own Lawyer
by Robert W. Schachner
Edition: Paperback
An ethical advocate for the service of Justice and search for truth, July 29, 2006
In comparison to Paul Bergman's legendry book "Represent Yourself In Court: How to Prepare & Try a Winning Case", this one is a legendary rival of a different flavor. The author entrusts his genuine instincts and writes as an advocate for the underdogs, needy, and less powerful in face of unfair, expensive, and complex system of justice. Unfairness stems from the persons in charge of delivering justice. The Author uses Judge Brian Duff as an example for personal effect on the service of justice. Despite the critiques on the poor organization and trivial inaccuracies in the book, it serves as an informal, casual, and benign display of information that is easy to read and assimilate while time sneaks by. (Bergman book's strict organization renders its reading laboriously time demanding). Once every few pages, the author interjects the highlighted concepts in full-page tables. The author convincingly achieves his goal that reason and logic could triumph if supported by simple know-how. In many of his anecdotes about litigants betrayed by incompetent counsels, the author makes the reader senses his insider's frustration with his own profession. He contends that his book was driven by the dilemma of the legal profession of: whether lawyers should be in it for self-enrichment or moral conduct? It might be quite demanding to retrieve information from the book if you are in a hurry for a court appearance, since the book lacks clear and unified template. However, if you enjoy reading for relaxing and focusing on deep thoughts and strategies, this book has it. For example, it stresses on slow talking in clear and systematic manner in many effective ways. Slow, slow, and slow talking in front of the court is highly stressed for reporting and logical reasons of trying evidence and appeal. It then addresses the issue of not repeating evidence unless there is a specific need other than rehearsing it. The author alerts the self representatives of the perils of objection to adversaries and explains reasonable situations when objection is a plus. He then stresses on the fact that the self-representative should realize that both the judge and the jury have mere cursory knowledge of the lawsuit at hand which requires the pro se not to assume any previous knowledge and to lay the foundation form beginning to end in logical fashion. Ethos, pathos, and logos of Aristotle describe the elements of his dosing arguments. Those are summarized as attitude of orator, his passion and emotion, and finally his logical analysis in summing up his case to the court. He emphasizes understatement and simple common sense as effective tools to abstract truth from a complexly intermingling situation. The author addresses the science part of trying legal suits and left the art part to the reader to labor at. His strategies of searching for the truth extend far beyond material evidence to moral character, personal credibility, and evidence's relevance and credibility. He then devises a strategy of seeking the truth along all those dimensions of evidence.
Represent Yourself In Court: How to Prepare & Try a Winning Case
by Paul Bergman
Edition: Paperback
The best friend for pro se litigants in the strange land of law., July 13, 2006
This is one of the best books I have read and enjoyed about pro se litigation. The large font, great white space, and properly displayed summary tables render the book easy to endure and utilize. The authors offer many proverbs and examples for lay people that alleviate the harshness of legal lingo. Moreover, they even translate the formal and non-technical English words into layman's language. For example, words such as "sanction, impeach, strike, motion, cross, re-cross, direct, and re-direct" are simplified to common readers to mean "punish, discredit, delete, request, and questioning of witnesses in different setting". The authors realize the hardship of hiring a good and trustworthy lawyer and assist the readers in understanding their rights for selfrepresentation. Not only you will learn how not to be a fool pro se, but also how to expose the foolishness of ill-prepared lawyers and how to feel home among busy birds of a feather different from yours. The book dissects the court room like an anatomy specimen and shows the reader where everyone belongs. In one of the traffic violation I attended, a defendant brought his 5-year old son to the courtroom, was not able to control his running between the judge's legs and messing up stacks of papers on the reporter's desk.) This book will familiarize you with the territory such that you will avoid acting childishly. Aside from running between the judge's legs, the pro se will learn how to seek permission to approach a witness, to admit exhibits, to strike evidence, and so on. The paper work phase is explained in great details to remove the anxiety of the long and contentious process that follows. It offers assurance that anxiety and fear are natural reaction to performing on a stage of adversarial nature. Actors, teachers, lawyers go through what a pro se litigant goes through in laboring to defend his or her arguments. It offers forms for different filing purposes, describes exhibits and trial notebook, and explains how to respond to and make objections. The trial dissection is also magnificent in describing in details the phases of paper work filing, subject and personal jurisdiction, statute of limitation, and the development of the trial process from filling answers, motions, pretrial material, discovery, and evidentiary issue. The trial process is well described as well to entail opening statement, direct and cross examination, closing statement. It is preceded with extensive elaboration on how settlement, aberration, and mediation most of times cut the process short of a trial. The elaborate description of informal and formal discovery process is very helpful to pro se litigants since it saves the exuberant amount of money spent on lawyers to gather documents, depose witness, and disclose evidence. The thorough details of the techniques of discovery are presented in bulleted subsections, each with its advantages and disadvantages. The book extends it discussion to post-trail phases of appeals and judgment. It then delves into specialized areas such as divorce and bankruptcy. The coherence of the book topics serves the readers a great deal in enabling pro se to focus on pertinent legal claims, their elements, the facts that address each element, and the evidence required to prove the facts. Three trivial problems are noticeable. One, pages are numbered according to chapters which forces the reader to remember two instead of one number when trying to memorize latest page read. Two, referencing to legal coach is excessively used while the book is intended to self-represented parties. Three, excessive branching of references for further reading are everywhere despite the good 24 healthy chapters of the book.
by Murray Waas
Edition: Paperback
Guilty until proven innocent. Another victim of Bush's wars., September 16, 2007
Poor Libby had devoted his career defending Bush's administration on its decision to do Iraq, yet was thrown to the Jaws of brutal injustice for trivial mistakes. On June 11, 2003, he was provided with a report from a subordinate, Marc Grossman, as well as from an insider in the CIA, Robert Grenier, that revealed the identity of a CIA agent, the wife of ambassador Wilson, who was sent to Niger to verify the connection between Iraq and the procurement of uranium. Libby never knew or sought such trail of classified information. His main objective was to prove that the guy who was sent to the Niger did not do so on behalf of the Libby's boss, Vice President Cheney. Even before Libby's release of the agent's name to journalist Miller on June 23, Armitage had already done so on June 13, to Woodward. Armitage never been tried. Both Grossman and Grenier never told Libby that the information they provided him was classified and should not be used, assuming that he should have known better, I guess. The loose cannon Grossman had already broadcasted the information to Armitage and omitted to sort out what was classified and what was not. So, no matter what Libby did or did not do, the classified information has been leaked from Grossman, to Armitage, to Woodward on June 13. Libby leaked it on June 23 to Miller. Libby paid the high price for simply not saying: Sorry, I did not know that was a big deal or admitted to making a mistake. Instead, Libby made up (or may have been genuinely inflicted with poor memory) a story of his own wishful imagination. Perjury and Obstruction of justice had cost Libby his job, reputation, and more for attempting to defend a losing war in Iraq and exonerating his boss. He had to be sacrificed by an incompetent president who blames the CIA for deceptive information, and who rejected every opinion that opposed his obsession with Saddam. The book was published in June 2007, merely three months after the March 6th verdict. The book briefs the transcripts with reasonable accuracy. The book defaults on truncating parts of the transcripts that describe the witnesses' background, among others, omitting the minute-by-minute timeline of each question and answer, and its unorganized and incomplete appendix of exhibits. The reader would not be able to discern the time or duration of each witness's testimony, since the trial transcripts were thrown into the book without due concern of such aspect of witnesses' reaction to examination. The major default in the book is the lack of the real trial's audio recording, which could have conveyed the real demeanor of the witnesses and the efficacy of the defense and prosecutor. The tone of voice of the witness in responding to questions and the timing of response to question could not be conveyed by a written text alone. The prosecutor seems to have entangled an innocent citizen who simply failed to say, "I did not know it was a big deal", as did Ari Fleischer, who also refused to cooperate without being granted immunity from persecution. Or, I guess no one could be innocent in defending the Vice President who plotted the entire fiasco of Iraq. How much money would it take, for a single person like Libby, to defeat a resourceful government team of prosecutors? Would the reader shed a tear on the injustice done to one of the collaborators of the Iraq's debacle? I guess the answer is relative. Dr. Rice had lied to the whole world and did more damage to the nation by blaming the CIA for the sixteen words in the state of the union address. (I forgot Tenet's appearance with Powell in the UN in their deceptive presentation on WMD). Yet, real culprits always go unpunished. Dr. Rice should have been first in paying the price for abuse of power in democracy. The reader justifiably should be concerned over the waste of national treasure over persecuting the trivial players while letting the corrupt leaders head national policy. Aside from the lack of audio and poor exhibiting, the book's price, organization, and timing of publication are well appreciated.
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