Norm Pattis
Norm Pattis is a criminal defense attorney and civil rights lawyer in Bethany. Most days he blogs at www.pattisblog.com.
One Hand Clapping
The Savage Character Of Family Courts
Friday, September 14, 2012 | by Norm Pattis | The Connecticut Law Tribune
If you doubt for one moment our membership in the animal kingdom, spend some time in family court in a high-conflict case. I swear you can all but hear the parties snarling at one another in territorial rage. The claims of reason are tenuous when what's at stake is an affair of the heart. We are, as David Hume observed long ago, slaves to our passions.
One Hand Clapping
Matching Wits With Dr. Phil
-
- Subscription Required
Friday, September 7, 2012 | by Norm Pattis | The Connecticut Law Tribune
Friends and colleagues warned me against agreeing to appear on the Dr. Phil show. But my client wanted to go. The client asked me to come along, to make sure things did not go horribly wrong. So I put on a good suit, brushed my hair and drove to the site of the interview.
One Hand Clapping
Dispatches From A Lawyer's ER
-
- Subscription Required
Friday, August 31, 2012 | by Norm Pattis | The Connecticut Law Tribune
The best stories we keep to ourselves. It's the law's way. You hang a shingle asking people to come to tell you their troubles. Good lawyers often lose a taste for fiction as a form of entertainment. We don't need to make things up. Just be alert. Pay attention. Try not to be overwhelmed by it all. And remember, always, the attorney-client privilege. We lawyers are, after all, the low-priests of chaos.
One Hand Clapping
Another Drug, Another Exercise In Madness
-
- Subscription Required
Monday, August 27, 2012 | by Norm Pattis | The Connecticut Law Tribune
Oxycodone is the new "gateway drug," or so federal prosecutors are reporting in their sentencing memoranda. Take some oxy, and you're on the slippery slope to serious drug addiction. And let's not forget the violence associated with drug dealing of all sorts. So let's slam oxy dealers, and toss them into prison. We're waging war for the soul of America, by golly.
One Hand Clapping
An Obligation To Speak Up For The Accused
-
- Subscription Required
Friday, August 17, 2012 | by Norm Pattis | The Connecticut Law Tribune
The Manhattan District Attorney's Office took a gentle swat at me the other day. It believes I came dangerously close to violating the rules of professional responsibility as to pre-trial publicity by speaking out to the press. The case involves a client accused of promoting prostitution as part of a high-end escort service. I take these prosecutors seriously. But I think they are wrong.
One Hand Clapping
Gun-toting Lawyer Lacked Common Sense
-
- Subscription Required
Friday, August 10, 2012 | by Norm Pattis | The Connecticut Law Tribune
You decide one night to go the movies. So you trundle off to downtown New Haven for a late-evening showing of the new Batman flick, "The Dark Knight Returns." Because it's New Haven, you decide you better be armed to defend yourself. Who knows, you might get mugged by your parking attendant. So you pack your trusty pistol in the back of your trousers and wade bravely into the movie theater. Although you have a permit to carry the gun, fellow moviegoers don't know that. They see the gun and freak out. The police are called.
One Hand Clapping
Accountability Lacking In State's Attorney's Office
-
- Subscription Required
Friday, August 3, 2012 | by Norm Pattis | The Connecticut Law Tribune
If you are going to stand up in the well of the court and demand accountability on behalf of the people of the State of Connecticut from some poor schmuck charged with a crime, you ought at least to be accountable yourself. But in the Danbury State's Attorney's Office, accountability is a twisted joke.
One Hand Clapping
Delayed Decisions? It's The System, Not One Judge
-
- Subscription Required
Friday, July 27, 2012 | by Norm Pattis | The Connecticut Law Tribune
News that Superior Court Judge William Holden faces discipline by the Judicial Review Council caught me by surprise. What had the man done to warrant a public takedown? It turns out he's guilty, if that's the right word, of the collective sin of the judiciary ? delay. Query? Rather than singling out Judge Holden for scorn, why not sigh a giant mea culpa from the entire Judicial Branch?
