Other Voices, Other Rooms - 3 [Snarky Constructively Critical Jurist Edition]

First noted at Tom Mighell's Inter Alia, and now added to my sidebar:

Shaun Martin is a Professor at the University of San Diego Law School, and he's reporting on recent Ninth Circuit and California state appellate cases over at the California Appellate Report.

Professor Martin claims (and who are we to doubt it) to read every published decision from the California state appellate courts and California-related decisions from the 9th Circuit.  The decisions on which he reports cover many legal fields that are not covered by this weblog, but deserving of your attention.  The good professor also reports the occasional unpublished decision, such as a recent opinion in which, by his count,

. . . Justice Sims insults the attorneys sixteen separate times; indeed, virtually every footnote -- and there are fourteen of them -- contains a slam on counsel.

Discussion of that decision is also occasion for a meditation on the way in which the inherent expense of litigation may operate to undercut the quality of representation in small and medium-sized cases.  A brutal equation.

The complement to this story might be these Decs&Excs posts from late summer, 2003: The Pros and Cons of Insulting Judges [which includes an embarrassing misspelling -- unchanged in the interests of historical accuracy -- of the name of the estimable David Giacalone] and Further Reflections on that same topic.

Update [03/02/05]: The title of this post has been modified in response to a modicum of irascible teasing in certain quarters.

Comments

[Martin]

Goerge:
Everyone who is anyone misspells David Giac-a-lone's name.
Mirtan

[David Giacalone]

dear Martian: you'd be surprised how many nobodies mispell Mr. Olson's name over at Uberlowered.com. It's a wonder he doesn't sue.