For lawyers: Blogging can have a cost

Very, very interesting.

Until such time as Desmond Morris writes “Lawyer Watching,” all attorneys should be required to read his book, “Catwatching.”

Cats have two lives. The life they live around their owners. And, the live they live around other cats.

When lawyers get their law licenses, they should be told, “You’re not a cat.” In essence, life in the courtroom is not totally separate from real life. Judges, courtroom deputies, bailiffs and opposing counsel all happen to have lives outside the courtroom. Some of them might browse the web. They might see that while you were grieving that loss in your family which got the trial continued to a later date that you were out partying.

While we’re at it, I used to research local cases for Thomson West. I learned a lot doing that work. In civil law or criminal law or immigration law, in their respective areas of specialization, the same small group of attorneys in that particular specialty do about 95 percent of the trials in their locale. Very few attorneys are trial lawyers anymore. That does not stop a whole bunch of lawyers from advertising that they are “tough” or “experienced” or whatever. They may be those things but not in an actual trial.

Even more rarified are the lawyers who have actually argued appellate cases particularly before the United States Court of Appeals. The only more elite crowd are those lawyers who have actually argued before the Supreme Court of the United States.