Apparently United States Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts could have had a second career writing noir crime fiction novels. Who knew?


Nicole Black
Administrator
Nicole Black is an attorney and the Legal Technology Evangelist at MyCase. Her legal career spans nearly two decades and she has extensive litigation experience. She was named an inaugural ABA Legal Rebel in 2009 and an inaugural Fastcase 50 in 2011. She is also a well known legal technology author, journalist, and speaker. She wrote "Computing for Lawyers" (2012) and co-authored "Social Media: The Next Frontier" (2010), both published by the American Bar Association. She also co-authors "Criminal Law in New York," a Thomson West treatise. She often speaks at conferences about the intersection of law, mobile computing and Internet-based technology. She can be reached at niki.black@mycase.com.
Posts by Nicole Black
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Now is The Time to Transition Your Firm From Premise-Based Legal Software to the Cloud
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ABA Survey: Legal Software Use In Law Firms In 2021
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ABA Survey: Mobile Lawyer Trends in 2021
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Small Firms Lawyers: Plan For a Successful 2021 With These 4 Books
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Lay The Groundwork for a Successful 2021 With These 3 Marketing Tips For Lawyers
David Gerald
October 6, 2014 — 10:14 am
I am afraid someone is going to post criticizing commentary about judges not appreciating the seriousness of the situation for the accused. I respect that concern. I have been on both sides of counsel’s table and I know all-to-well that there is nothing funny about a trial when you’re in the box, and nothing to laugh at when you read that your request for appeal has been denied. BUT as a law student, I respect any effort by the bench to “lower” themselves to the level of the public they serve. This improves access to justice.
We have a public who often have no concept of how common law and legislation interact. Sadly, many people learn about the justice system from sensational news articles and (in my country of Canada) from outlandish political tough-on-crime rhetoric. If the occasional written reasons read like an entertaining narrative, it would be secretly educational and perhaps we would have an improved democratic system. Politicians couldn’t fear monger their way into office, the public would understand why the judiciary has fought against mandatory minimum sentence legislation, and people would have a greater understanding of how judges struggle with tossing a case on constitutional grounds before setting free a high profile accused.
In short, there might be less ignorance and greater compassion. We cherish our system of open courts, but then hide our decisions behind pedantic language, Latin legal maxims, and often judicial reasons that even legal scholars sometimes struggle comprehending. We can’t hold the public behind that self-affirming brass bar, and yet lament their media-fuelled hysterics about our seemingly broken system. The system works well. Let’s tell people about it.