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The First Amendment, Freedom of Religion is much more exciting than you imagine.  It involves hangings, wedding cakes, multiple wives and flying monsters.  Modern American history is not as religiously tolerant as you may believe. The first settlers in Boston were Puritans and a lady named Mary Dyer was a Puritan who, contrary to the teachings of the church, believed that God spoke directly to people and not to the people only through the clergy.  Well, that’s interesting that she thought that, you might think – probably not a lot of people talked to her after church on Sundays…maybe she […]

Much like a weekend in Vegas, your right to free speech under the First Amendment is both less and more than you might think it is. In this legal brief we talk about what is and is not free speech in the good ole U.S. of A. For example, if you were in a crowded movie theater and yelled “fire”  (that’s a bad example nowadays – you’d be the only one running to the exit … ). (let’s start over) Ok, let’s start back in the olden days – even before I was born.  In the 1787 the Constitution came […]

Thanks to massive lobbying efforts by Pizza Hut and Dominoes, the legalization of marijuana has really taken off in the last 10-15 years.  A lot of states are feeling the buzz so to speak and passing legalization or medical marijuana laws.  So, can you legally smoke, what are the risks, and should you open a Pizza Hut near your local college?  So, my brother and I opened a medical marijuana store.  We keep our money in a “joint” account. Get it? No?  Okay, I made one up myself with a legal twist: What is the difference between legal and illegal […]

Okay, it’s time to sue your evil enemy – your nemesis.  Or perhaps you’re a young lawyer working on your first Complaint for an old grumpy law partner.  Today, I’m going to tell you how to draft a lawsuit – from Caption to Signature Line. A lawsuit is made up of five parts: the Caption, Statement of Jurisdiction and Venue, the Body, and the Prayer for Relief and Signature Line.  In the next 5-6minutes or so we are gonna go through the important issues of each part and give you some samples. The first part of the lawsuit is the Caption.  The Caption has the name of the Court […]

On today’s blog you are going to read the story of the conjoined twins Gracie and Rosie and the legal conundrum the British Court found itself when asked to decide whether Rosie could be killed in order to save Gracie. Back in the olden days – the year 2000, Gracie and Rosie were born joined at the hip and up to their shared chest wall. Conjoined twins are very rare and everyone’s situation is different.  Some conjoined twins can be unjoined by surgery, some cannot be unjoined without putting one or the other at grave risk. The conjoined twins Abby […]

A deposition, like trial, is usually won or lost in the preparation.  On today’s Legal Brief we are going to show you exactly how to prepare for a deposition.  Remember: by failing to prepare you are preparing to fail (too cheesy?) Okay, you have decided it’s time to depose a witness.  90% of attorneys don’t go about this the right way and we are going to get you in the top 10%.  Don’t worry – I got your back. MOST lawyers at this point are going to email their assistant to schedule the deposition and then send out the Notice of Deposition.  Then, maybe […]