Efficient Use of Judicial Resources During the Financial Crisis

"Courts are available to all potential litigants in almost the same way the common is available to all farmers. Just as the villagers must be able to afford livestock before using the common, American litigants must be able to afford a lawyer before they can go to court.  Once, however, this precondition is met, litigants take as much of a court's goods and services as they want when their turn comes up.  In most places, of course, their turn doesn't come up often because of the length of this queue."

                  -- Richard Neely, Why Courts Don't Work, 172 (McGraw-Hill 1982).

On this cheery note, "10 experts" in the June 2011 issue of the ABA Journal submit their ideas on how  to "sustain justice," and "tell how courts can do more with less."  The unified theme running between these and many other popular articles today is the recognition that the financial crisis is not a passing one but instead represents a "new normal," like I have written elsewhere.  As such, it is imperative that courts, like everyone else, adapt to these new conditions.  The authors discussed here pose some great suggestions, while acknowledging the financial crisis is not unique to the courts but is one which  every person and institution are subject today.

Mediating Neighborhood Disputes

Neighborhood and property associations are places ripe for internal and external strife, in light of their sheer numbers; the frequent comprehensiveness of their rules and regulations; the intensely personal nature of hearth and hope.  At the same time, neighborhood disputes do not lend themselves to litigation, for the many of the same reasons.  Accordingly, this blog post discusses why neighborhood and property associations should strongly consider mediation to resolve their various internal and external disputes.

Warner v. Calvert & NM Mediation Procedures Act

The New Mexico Court of Appeals has recently issued the first reported decision applying the New Mexico Mediation Procedures Act,  NMSA §§ 44-7B-1 et seq.*  Warner v. Calvert, et al., 2011-NMCA-028, cert. not applied for.  The Court concluded that a non-party participant to a mediation could be admitted as an expert in a subsequent trail, after mediation fell through, although the non-party participant's valuation report could not be admitted .

The Modern Method of Overturning Precedent

In the May 2011 issue of the ABA Journal, Richard Brust comments on the U.S. Supreme Court's emergent "stealth" method of overturning precedent.

2011 a Big Year in NM for ALJs and Hearing Examiners

2011 is shaping up to be quite a year in New Mexico for Administrative Law Judges and Hearing Officials.  The National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary (NAALJ) is having their Annual Conference in Santa Fe from September 18-21, 2011, at the beautiful La Fonda Hotel.  See http://www.naalj.org/conferences. Then, the National Association of Hearing Officials (NAHO) is holding its annual Professional Development Conference in Santa Fe from November 13-16, 2011, also at the La Fonda Hotel.  See http://www.naho.org/.

Wise Tips on Brief (and Opinion!) Writing

In the Fall 2010 issue of the ABA Journal of the Section of Litigation (Vol. 37, No. 1), retired Florida judge Larry A.Klein provides much excellent and insightful advise on brief writing.  As decision makers, we've all been presented with some great briefs and some awful ones and, as Judge Klein notes, it is sometimes even very qualified, well-regarded counsel that make the following mistakes.  Moreover, the tips are so perfectly suited to all legal writing that I have made a number of notes to myself to watch out for in the future.

The "Reasonable Person" -- a Product of Social Mores, Not a Mathematician

Micheal J. De Vinne, lawyer and historian, recently wrote a quite delightful piece tracing the evolution of that ubiquitous legal fiction, the "reasonable person."  See "The Reasonable Person as a Living Fossil," ABA Journal of the Section of Litigation, Vol. 37, No. 1, Fall 2010.  In tracing its evolution, he concludes the reasonably person is never defined by the law but rather left to a panel of peers to define based on the collected mores of the times.