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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Save Time And Money By Changing Voir Dire
Monday, February 2, 2009 | by Norm Pattis | The Connecticut Law Tribune
Connecticut's Constitution is unique: Alone among its counterparts, it guarantees that each lawyer picking a jury will have the right to question potential jurors individually. But it does not follow from this right that all other jurors should be sequestered during that questioning. Connecticut lawmakers could save a fortune and speed the administration of justice by eliminating routine individual sequestered
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One Man Walks, So Critics Take Run At Judge
Monday, January 26, 2009 | by Norm Pattis | The Connecticut Law Tribune
Storm clouds are gathering over the General Assembly as lawmakers consider the reappointment of Superior Court Judge Thomas P. Miano. A bitter fight is expected, and the focus of that fight is the judge's sentencing decision in the case of
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Legal Tax Would Just Drive Up Fees
Monday, January 19, 2009 | by Norm Pattis | The Connecticut Law Tribune
Estimates of Connecticut's budget deficit for the current fiscal year range from about $200 million to more than $350 million. No wonder lawmakers are looking everywhere for extra tax dollars. The Connecticut Bar Association fears that lawmakers may look to tax legal services. That makes about as much sense as selling life preservers on a sinking ship: All that will be accomplished is more deaths by drowning.
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A Late-Night Search For The True Jesus
Monday, January 12, 2009 | by Norm Pattis | The Connecticut Law Tribune
At 12:45, I turned the light on. My wife did not stir. Neither did the cars. All else was quiet, my mind once again drawn to an impossible thought, a question that has been haunting me now for decades, but which I can rarely mutter the courage to utter aloud: Is the Kingdom of God at hand?
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Scorched Earth Tactics On Discovery Battlefield
Monday, January 5, 2009 | by Norm Pattis | The Connecticut Law Tribune
Am I naive, or is the sad level of inappropriate gamesmanship in the civil discovery process obvious to others as well? Consider the following forms of pathology, all observed in the past month.
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Is It All Madoff's Fault? No. Look In The Mirror
Monday, December 29, 2008 | by Norm Pattis | The Connecticut Law Tribune
C'mon, people. Get a grip. Roll up your sleeves. Get to work and stop whining. The simple fact is that Bernie didn't make you do it. You did it to yourselves. We all did it to ourselves. We willfully suspended belief. We bought a dream that turned into a nightmare. We were suckers. No more and no less.
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A Holiday Season That's Both Sobering And Hopeful
Monday, December 22, 2008 | by Norm Pattis | The Connecticut Law Tribune
I am not in much of a holiday frame of mind. In the past few months, I've watched the economy curl up and all but die. For the first time in my legal career, I am working the phones, trying to get clients to pay their bills. Calls go unreturned; invoices are ignored. But my expenses are eternal. "Ho, ho, ho," seems like a foreign tongue.
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Unsettling Phone Call From Panicky Client
Monday, December 8, 2008 | by Norm Pattis | The Connecticut Law Tribune
I admire those lawyers who give out telephone numbers at which they can be reached both day and night. Me, I am unavailable after 7 p.m. There are no exceptions. This is a punishing way to make a living. Come sundown, I want to curl up with a good book, and then get some sleep.
