The legend goes that The Guinness Book of World Records had once planned on listing Jonathan Lee Riches as "the most litigious individual in history" - that is, until he sued them. According to Wikipedia, Riches has filed over 2,600 lawsuits in federal district courts all throughout the United States, suing everyone and everything from Britney Spears to Daylight Savings Time. Comes Now the Plaintiff: Selected Lawsuits (and Poems) includes some of his most outrageous lawsuits, many never before reported, and a collection of poems, all compiled and edited by Michael Sajdak.
The Model Rules of Professional Conduct provides an up-to-date resource for information on legal ethics. Federal, state and local courts in all jurisdictions look to the Rules for guidance in solving lawyer malpractice cases, disciplinary actions, disqualification issues, sanctions questions and much more. In this volume, black-letter Rules of Professional Conduct are followed by numbered Comments that explain each Rule's purpose and provide suggestions for its practical application. The Rules will help you identify proper conduct in a variety of given situations, review those instances where discretionary action is possible, and define the nature of the relationship between you and your clients, colleagues and the courts.
A comprehensive guide to legal style and usage, with practical advice on how to write clear, jargon-free legal prose. Includes style tips as well as definitions.
Apply important legal concepts and skills you need to succeed Get educated, land a job, and start making money now! Want a new career as a paralegal but don't know where to start? Relax! Paralegal Career For Dummies is the practical, hands-on guide to all the basics -- from getting certified to landing a job and getting ahead. Inside, you'll find all the tools you need to succeed, including a CD packed with sample memos, forms, letters, and more! Discover how to * Secure your ideal paralegal position * Pick the right area of the law for you * Prepare documents for litigation * Conduct legal research * Manage a typical law office Sample resumes, letters, forms, legal documents, and links to online legal resources. Please see the CD-ROM appendix for details and complete system requirements.
A comprehensive analysis of Donald Trump's legal history reveals his temperament, methods, character, and morality. Unlike all previous presidents who held distinguished positions in government or the military prior to entering office, Donald Trump's political worldview was molded in the courtroom. He sees law not as a system of rules to be obeyed and ethical ideals to be respected, but as a weapon to be used against his adversaries or a hurdle to be sidestepped when it gets in his way. He has weaponized the justice system throughout his career, and he has continued to use these backhanded tactics as Plaintiff in Chief. In this book, distinguished New York attorney James D. Zirin presents Trump's lengthy litigation history as an indication of his character and morality, and his findings are chilling: if you partner with Donald Trump, you will probably wind up litigating with him. If you enroll in his university or buy one of his apartments, chances are you will want your money back. If you are a woman and you get too close to him, you may need to watch your back. If you try to sue him, he's likely to defame you. If you make a deal with him, you had better get it in writing. If you are a lawyer, an architect, or even his dentist, you'd better get paid up front. If you venture an opinion that publicly criticizes him, you may be sued for libel. A window into the president's dark legal history, Plaintiff in Chief is as informative as it is disturbing.
Over the last twenty years Jonathan Lee Riches has cultivated an air of mystery. Having originally been incarcerated for wire fraud in 2003 he became infamous, both inside the prison and on the internet, for filing thousands of frivolous lawsuits. These suits, often directed at celebrities and corporations, ought to instead be seen as attacks on language and the fabric of social reality itself argue Dr. Mark Dyal and Stephen Sigl. Nothing is Written in Stone: A Jonathan Lee Riches Companion gathers together some of his most notable suits as well as two essays by the aforementioned Dr. Dyal and Mr.Sigl, as well as a brief autobiography by Jonathan Lee Riches himself.For any serious jailhouse lawyer, the gold standard remains Clarence Earl Gideon, the Florida drifter whose handwritten appeal of his felony theft conviction prompted the U.S. Supreme Court to guarantee the legal rights of prisoners in 1963. While some inmates have perverted Gideon's legacy with tiresomely self-interested claims, Riches perverted it in a more interesting way: As his jailhouse-law oeuvre became more baroque, it seemed he was using his court filings for a kind of social commentary verging on performance art. -Michael Brick, The New Republic (July 11, 2013)The IDEA of Lawsuits as Pranks, raising issues of Social and Individual JUSTICE, is complexly illuminated in this exhaustively detailed book, suitable for reading on an around-the-world-by oxcart voyage around the world.-V. Vale, author of RE/Search PRANKS Book Riches' huge list of bizarre legal claims -which target such familiar parties as George W. Bush, Brad Pitt, Weird Al Yankovic and Harrison Ford, as well as more surprising defendants that include Hannibal Lector, the planet Pluto, the '13 Tribes of Israel' and 'various Buddhist monks' -are both compelling and, frankly, bewildering. From within the confines of the US prison system, his imagination and, perhaps, paranoia run wild, gradually constructing a surreal universe where presidents time travel to 1066 to change the course of history, O.J. Simpson carries out hits on behalf of Steve Jobs and the US military illegally sells Jonathan Lee Riches mugs on college campuses.-Dayal Patterson, founder of Cult Never Dies Publishing, author of Black Metal: Evolution of the Cult
Good legal writing wins court cases. It its first edition, The Winning Brief proved that the key to writing well is understanding the judicial readership. Now, in a revised and updated version of this modern classic, Bryan A. Garner explains the art of effective writing in 100 concise, practical, and easy-to-use sections. Covering everything from the rules for planning and organizing a brief to openers that can capture a judge's attention from the first few words, these tips add up to the most compelling, orderly, and visually appealing brief that an advocate can present. In Garner's view, good writing is good thinking put to paper. "Never write a sentence that you couldn't easily speak," he warns-and demonstrates how to do just that. Beginning each tip with a set of quotable quotes from experts, he then gives masterly advice on building sound paragraphs, drafting crisp sentences, choosing the best words ("Strike pursuant to from your vocabulary."), quoting authority, citing sources, and designing a document that looks as impressive as it reads. Throughout, he shows how to edit for maximal impact, using vivid before-and-after examples that apply the basics of rhetoric to persuasive writing. Filled with examples of good and bad writing from actual briefs filed in courts of all types, The Winning Brief also covers the new appellate rules for preparing federal briefs. Constantly collecting material from his seminars and polling judges for their preferences, the second edition delivers the same solid guidelines with even more supporting evidence. Including for the first time sections on the ever-changing rules of acceptable legal writing, Garner's new edition keeps even the most seasoned lawyers on their toes and writing briefs that win cases. An invaluable resource for attorneys, law clerks, judges, paralegals, law students and their teachers, The Winning Brief has the qualities that make all of Garner's books so popular: authority, accessibility, and page after page of techniques that work. If you're writing to win a case, this book shouldn't merely be on your shelf--it should be open on your desk.
