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May 19, 2008 DAVID V. GOLIATH
A Final Encounter With An Old Mentor FREE
I didn't get much sleep last night, so forgive me if I ramble. I don't have much time, and then I am running out the door. I want to get to the courthouse early enough to be sure I am admitted.
The Changing Style Of Legislative Leadership 
Our legislature cannot function without leadership. If the 151 state representatives and 36 senators in the General Assembly – each with different values, objectives, and agendas – fly off in various directions, nothing can be accomplished.
Advisory Board
An Honorable Ombudsman
More than nine months ago, concerns were raised in this column as to Gov. M. Jodi Rell's choice of Robert Poliner as the state's first Ombudsman for Property Rights. The office, created by Public Act 06-187, has many responsibilities, including advising the General Assembly on property rights issues, undertaking research, and assisting public agencies and private parties in eminent domain proceedings.
LEGALLY CONSERVATIVE
A Beclouded FOIC Proceeding FREE
The Sanctuary City of New Haven has provoked protracted proceedings before the State's Freedom of Information Commission over its refusal to honor requests for information surrounding its controversial "IDs for Illegal Aliens" program. The FOIC consolidated the cases of two complainants who allege the city's refusal to disclose information about its activities violates the state's freedom of information laws and regulations. This is hardly the first time New Haven officials have responded to FOIA requests by ensnaring those who made them in endless bureaucratic proceedings before the FOIC. They know how to game the system.
May 12, 2008 GUEST COMMENTARY
A Prison Without Walls FREE
Apparently it was to be considered just another weekend in Hartford — two carjackings, a bank robbed by two men with handguns, a stabbing that apparently involved drugs, and two shooting incidents, one on the street and the other in a bar, in which nine people were wounded.
DAVID V. GOLIATH
Punishment 2 Harsh 4 Lusty Men on 'Net FREE
I realize that pleading for the lenient treatment of sex offenders is difficult. But I encourage the scoffers among you to read through to the conclusion of this column. Something horribly wrong is occurring in our courts. Will anyone do anything about it?
Human Rights Report
Fond, Final Farewell For A Legal Pioneer
The quotation on the front cover of the program came from Eleanor Roosevelt and read as follows: "A woman is like a tea bag — you never know how strong she is until she gets in hot water."
ADVICE OF COUNSEL
Stepping Up To The Plate
We have been hearing about the huge increase in foreclosures brought on by the credit crisis, the rise in mortgage companies using "no and low doc" loans, and the adjustable rate mortgages that rise dramatically and become unaffordable.
Alternative Dispute Resolution
Setting Standards For Quality Mediation
In mediation, it's essential to know something about the competence of the neutral to be selected and thus about the quality of the process to be employed. Since mediation advertises heavy party control and self-determination, it's important that users, particularly first-time users, have some assistance in building confidence in the mediator and the mediation process.
May 5, 2008 LEGALLY CONSERVATIVE
A Total System Failure FREE
There has been much talk of course about the stunning reversal of fortune for the plaintiff in Pelletier v. Sordoni/Skanska upon the Connecticut Supreme Court's overturn of the judgment. The amount at stake, from a jury's verdict and accrued interest, totaled more than $41 million. That is a massive amount of money. The plaintiff, a construction worker severely injured by a falling beam, must have been devastated by this outcome. News of it must have hit his counsel, presumably on contingency, right in the pit of the stomach. Verdicts of that height come once in a lifetime and, for most personal injury lawyers, never.
DAVID V. GOLIATH
Corrupt Officials Should Keep Their Pensions FREE
I hear a lot of talk these days about taking the pensions away from public employees who break the law. Folks are angry that John Rowland enjoys a state pension. In New Haven, William "Billy" White, a former cop, is heading off to prison for three years; he'll collect a pension while he's behind bars. Isn't giving a convicted felon a pension absurd, the law-and-order crowd asks?
An Independent Spirit
Buy Domain Names For The Long Haul
Domain names, if you haven't heard, are the next "real estate" boom. While law firms have made up a small sector of the Internet up until now, domain name ownership is very big business. And like condos in the early 2000s, there are many speculators looking to buy up domain names and flip them for a profit when someone wants their little piece of real estate.
April 28, 2008 Judge Blue Said It All
"All the perfumes in Arabia will not sweeten your blood-stained hands." So inveighed Judge Jon C. Blue in response to a suggestion that Edward R. Grant's good deeds in the decades after he slaughtered a girl should count for something.
David V. Goliath
Prisoner's Memoir Reveals The Shame Of Guantanamo
I thought I saw a tear trailing down the cheek of Liberty's Lady. She stood in New York's harbor facing east; she dared not look south. Things were done in her name to the south that made her want to crumble in shame. This once welcoming presence, who greeted so many of our parents and ancestors, now feels like a hypocrite.
Guest Column
Judges Should Take Charge Of Civil Cases
I was too lazy to haul my butt to Hartford for the Public Service and Trust Commission's public hearing on how to improve the courts, and nobody from the commission has gotten around to calling me for my suggestions. So I'm writing this column instead.
Advisory Board
Right Time For Special Masters
Is there any civil litigation judge who does not realize that he or she spends a lot of time dealing with minor legal issues and major amounts of paper? Some litigants use the system for their own personal advantage and expect the judge to straighten out the mess they create. That delays the whole system. It also increases the costs to other litigants.
Alternative Dispute Resolution
Time To Take The Temperature Of ADR
What do the World Trade Center victims, divorcing couples and disgruntled investors have in common? They resolve their claims and disputes by means other than court trials, using methods that will be the topic of a symposium on May l6 at Quinnipiac Law School.
April 21, 2008 ADVICE OF COUNSEL
A Debate Over Endowments
The Chronicle of Higher Education recently reported that 63 colleges and universities in the United States had endowments of at least $1 billion as of last June. Harvard and Yale lead with respective endowments of $34.6 billion and $22.5 billion, and annual returns of 19.8 percent and 25 percent. Among the smaller colleges, Williams, Grinnell and Amherst had endowments of more than $1.5 billion and annual returns of 29.4 percent, 16.7 percent, and 24.3 percent. Such high returns result in large part from the ability of these institutions to invest in private equity, hedge funds, venture capital, real estate and other "alternative investments" which are not available to those lesser endowed. Such institutions are also the beneficiaries of high levels of annual giving and bequests (particularly from alumni) and many mount billion dollar capital campaigns, often to finance specific projects such as new facilities.
How Parties Lost Power
Connecticut long had a reputation for strong political parties led by strong political leaders. There was a time when the chairman of each party was a powerful boss who chose his party's candidates for statewide and congressional offices and pressured the delegates at party conventions to nominate them; a time when the party organizations got out the vote and helped their candidates win elections; a time when the chairman ruled over the General Assembly and determined which bills passed and which did not.
DAVID V. GOLIATH
Liar, Liar, Badge on Fire: The Reid Technique FREE
This summer, several Connecticut towns will begin the practice of videotaping police interrogations. It is part of a pilot program designed to help the legislature determine whether the practice should be required of all police departments. While I applaud the initiative, I hope the pilot program is well designed. It would be as easy to trick lawmakers as it is to trick juries.
Religious Student Crosses Swords With Educators
Assigned to draw a landscape, a senior at Tomah High School in Madison, Wis., drew a path surrounded by mountains and clouds leading to a cross. At the top of the picture, he put the words "John 3:16 A sign of love."
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