Norm Pattis
Norm Pattis is a criminal defense attorney and civil rights lawyer in Bethany. Most days he blogs at www.pattisblog.com.
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Two Trials, Two Judges,Too Much Confusion
Monday, September 21, 2009 | by Norm Pattis | The Connecticut Law Tribune
I sometimes have trouble explaining to clients that there really is no such thing as the State of Connecticut. The concept is an abstract noun, a legal fiction. The state is something akin to a necessary place holder in a vast equation. Like God, it is ever present and always absent. But it feels different when you are standing in the well of a courtroom and a judge intones state versus you. All at once, this fiction acquires power. Clients then begin to wonder: If the state is prosecuting, does that mean the prosecution is working hand in glove with the Department of Children and Families, the tax man, the Department of Motor Vehicles, the entire administrative apparatus of all things bearing the state's seal?
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A College For Lawyers Or Monument For Founder?
Monday, September 14, 2009 | by Norm Pattis | The Connecticut Law Tribune
Last month, I swallowed my pride and went back to Wyoming to attend the 15th anniversary of the founding of Gerry Spence's Trial Lawyers College. When word spread that I had set foot on Thunderhead Ranch, folks started contacting me. And I started to ask questions about what has been going on out there during the past 10 years. Why had so many of the old timers I knew and respected left the place? The answer is money.
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Imprisoned Prosecutor On Road To Redemption
Monday, September 7, 2009 | by Norm Pattis | The Connecticut Law Tribune
The call shocked me. Mark Hurley has been released from prison. He's done his time and is back at home with his family. Do I have any work for him? Mark is a former prosecutor. I've known him for many years. He drove hard bargains on behalf of the state, and I was never sure where I stood with him. He would always listen, but I sometimes had the sense he found me distasteful. I can be a bit much.
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State Should Cover Defendants' Legal Costs
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Monday, August 31, 2009 | by Norm Pattis | The Connecticut Law Tribune
I've been watching the debate about national health care with a sinking feeling in my stomach. If it is this hard to build a consensus around assuring that all Americans have access to decent health care, how will we ever summon the conviction necessary to make sure that all Americans have the right to a decent defense when accused of a crime? Every American accused of a crime should have the right to a court-appointed lawyer and the funds necessary to investigate and present a defense. It's only fair, after all: A decision to prosecute is always supported by public funds.
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Overheated Hormones Shouldn't Be A Crime
Monday, August 24, 2009 | by Norm Pattis | The Connecticut Law Tribune
I keep thinking about the little bits of heaven I tasted in the summer of 1971. I was 15, working as one of four males at a girl's summer camp in northern Michigan. I built a horse corral out of cedar logs we felled and stripped in a nearby swamp. I spent several weeks as a chaperone of sorts on canoe trips down the Au Sable River. And, one memorable night, I lost my virginity to M., a counselor who was 18.
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Howl Of Rage Is No Call For Justice
Monday, August 10, 2009 | by Norm Pattis | The Connecticut Law Tribune
I doubt there is a person of good will in the state who does not empathize with Dr. William Petit of Cheshire. The man's family was slaughtered, and he was beaten and left for dead. To look at the family photo of he, his wife and two daughters displayed in news magazines nationwide is to experience something akin to the tearing of a scab from tender flesh. It is no wonder that when Dr. Petit speaks of his loss, people listen.
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Judge Pattis? Flirtation Ends In Rejection
Monday, August 3, 2009 | by Norm Pattis | The Connecticut Law Tribune
If I were to tell you that I've engaged in soul-searching for the past few months, would you scoff? What! A trial lawyer with a soul? And me, of all people, a scrivener with a poison pen? What provoked this? The prospect of a judgeship was dangled before my eyes. I was in New York when the question was popped: "Have you ever thought of becoming a federal judge?" The questioner's eyes bored in, searching. My interlocutor was a person of some influence.
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Probation Officers Often Unfair To Sex Offenders
Monday, July 20, 2009 | by Norm Pattis | The Connecticut Law Tribune
Hugh Keefe has a gift for superlatives. As one of the deans of Connecticut's defense bar, he has earned the right to make pronouncements as he tap dances through his twilight years. He may not yet have made the cover of
