Miscellaneous

New Iowa Supreme Court Opinions 6/20/08

Posted on June 20, 2008
Here are the things I learned today from the Iowa Supreme Court: Easton v. Howard - Don’t drive drunk. If only for the fact that you’ll want to remember how your boyfriend left your moving vehicle while you were executing a u-turn after an argument...

Flood Update

Posted on June 16, 2008
Apparently, we still have not been able to retrieve our server. So, I’m still unable to get the court schedules, etc. I’m told we should be up and running by the end of the week, but we’ll see. I’m surprised at how busy downtown Iowa City is...

Linn County Flood Update

Posted on June 16, 2008
Here is an update of the plans for continuing courthouse business Linn County. The statewide update is here.

Flood-Related Closings

Posted on June 13, 2008
I just found this link to courthouses and other judicial branch offices that are closed. It appears to be updated when needed.

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The flooding continues?

Posted on June 13, 2008
So, our office in Cedar Rapids is in what used to be the APAC Building. The power has been out there since Wednesday evening, which means we have no email or voicemail. A call to any ofour publicized telephone numbers gives you dead air. No ringing, no message saying the phone’s not working, etc...

FYI - COURTHOUSE CLOSINGS

Posted on June 11, 2008
This will come as no surprise to most of you. A call this afternoon to the Benton County Courthouse yeilded an automated message giving their normal business hours and telling people that they are currently closed and don’t know when they’ll return...

Attorneys and Disasters

Posted on June 11, 2008
It’s interesting to be involved with a firm whose main office is in downtown Cedar Rapids. We are currently trying to plan for power outages and such. If the power goes out, we lose access to our server, which means no email and no phones. All of my calls are routed through there, so that [...

New Iowa Court of Appeals opinions

Posted on June 11, 2008
Not much to look at, today. State v. Walls shows us some of those dirty tricks police officers sometimes use (see immediately previous post for some thoughts on the police), though it was harmless error to include the confession. That’s really the only case I found at all notable...

Family Ties

Posted on June 10, 2008
I have a cousin who is the police chief of a suburb of Des Moines. His brother (also my cousin, of course) got married last Saturday, so I had a chance to see the whole family. My police chief cousin likes to refer to criminal defense as the dark side, which is fine...

I think my brain needed a vacation . . .

Posted on June 09, 2008
I have been doing enough to get by lately. I think my brain just needed a vacation. My emotions, too, probably. We deal with other people’s problems all the time and don’t have the energy to deal with our own. So, I’ve been taking the time, lately, to think about my problems...

A little behind?

Posted on June 02, 2008
So, I got a little behind on all of this blog stuff. I may not have even commented on the Supreme Court opinions from last Friday, even though an astonishing 75% had something to do with municipal law. So, I apologize if there’s anyone out there who relies on my posts for information, entertainment or [...

Great event for lawyers and law students?

Posted on June 02, 2008
The Honorable Judge Russell will be speaking at a Johnson County YLD event this Friday. His topic will be tips on trial practice and courtroom procedure. Lawyers and law students are welcome to attend. More info here. Please RSVP as asked in the flyer so we have enough food...

Iowa Supreme Court

Posted on May 16, 2008
Three new opinions today. Two family law and one auto insurance. One of the family law cases comes from a split court, which we really haven’t seen much of lately. In re Marriage of Powers - A 4-3 decision vacating the Court of Appeals judgment giving primary physical care of the kids to Dad and affirming [...

Iowa Court of Appeals

Posted on May 14, 2008
There were a number of new Court of Appeals opinions released today. I looked through the summaries and found so many that I thought might be interesting. I ended up needing to shave my list a little bit so I could get some work done. There is one that touches on judicial recusal in an attorney malpractice [...

Immigration Raids

Posted on May 12, 2008
Most of us have probably heard the news about the ICE raids in Postville and, apparently, Waterloo. I haven’t seen any media coverage concerning any raids actually in Waterloo, but my sources tell me that one is taking place there, as well. I looked through a little bit of the warrant application posted here and here...

New Iowa Supreme Court Opinions

Posted on May 09, 2008
Four new opinions, today. Here are my thoughts: Iowa Supreme Court Disciplinary Board v. Jeffrey M. Ireland - Mr. Ireland’s Iowa law license was suspended for at least six months for his neglect of client matters and failure to return the clients’ papers and funds...

I am educated

Posted on May 08, 2008
Our proffesional liability insurance provider put on a free seminar today on how to avoid malpractice. It was an excellent presentation for the cost (free). I learned some new things and brushed up on old. One of the things that really caught my attention was the idea of a virtual law firm...

Termination of Parental Rights and Absentee Clients

Posted on May 07, 2008
I sat through a whole day of termination of parental rights trial yesterday. My client is the father of one of the kids and he was in federal prison for most of the child in need of assistance action. I finally met him a couple weeks ago when he showed up for an in-court review...

It?s time for more Iowa Supreme Court fun?

Posted on May 02, 2008
So, four new opinions today. One of them is per curiam and will not be published because it’s a sister case to another. My take: Cemen Tech, Inc v. Three D Industries, LLC - If you’re going to steal someone’s trade secrets, wait a while before you actually start to use them...

New Iowa Court of Appeals Opinions

Posted on April 30, 2008
Anyone interested in finding out just how childish and idiotic some adults can be should read State v. Gallimore. On appeal it was affirmed in part, reversed in part and remanded. Mr. Gallimore certainly has some valid arguments and deserves the reversal and remand, but who can blame a Court for punishing this guy? For a [...

Law Day

Posted on April 29, 2008
I had a chance to attend some of the Law Day festivities at the Johnson County courthouse today. I sat in on a discussion concerning the need for a new “justice center” in Johnson County. Some of the conversation centered on the fact that there’s a lot of public knowledge about the need for a [...

So I?m a little behind . . .

Posted on April 29, 2008
Since I don’t think there’s anyone who counts on me posting the Court schedules, I’m not going to apologize for missing a few days while I recovered from my wisdom teeth extraction. I’ll try to be better now that I’m back to work...

Ouch

Posted on April 23, 2008
So, I’m having all four of my wisdom teeth pulled tomorrow afternoon. The procedure starts at 1:30 and I can’t eat for six hours beforehand. I like to tell the story about how the dentist told me when I was 15 or so that I should consider having them out...

Calling Young Lawyers

Posted on April 22, 2008
Anyone interested in being involved in a young lawyers division of the Johnson County Bar should contact me. A small group met today and talked about the kinds of things we’d like to do. We’ll take whatever input anyone has, but we’re looking at lunch meetings for now, with speakers of interest to a broad [...

Trial Recovery

Posted on April 17, 2008
It’s been a week since I had a full-day trial. I wasn’t exactly on the ball about getting ready for it, so I was scrambling at the end. That scrambling made me put off other things that I needed to get done. So, I was way behind when I got o the office on Friday [...

Rule Changes

Posted on April 14, 2008
The Supreme Court today released changes to forms contained in the Iowa Court Rules. You can find the changes here. I haven’t taken the time to figure out what the changes are, but I’m sure they’re extremely important.

Things I learned today from the Iowa Supreme Court

Posted on April 11, 2008
Two new opinions from the Iowa Supreme Court, today. The first dealt again with a challenge to the 2000 foot living restriction for sex offenders. The second again covering what the Public Defender’s Office must pay court appointed attorneys. Here’s what I learned: Wright v...

I?m Terrible at Evidence

Posted on April 10, 2008
So, I learned something today during my trial. I’m terrible at evidence. Maybe it was the lack of sleep, but I had issues with a few items of evidence. Oh well. The trial went and I think we did OK, so I guess that’s what matters. Now comes the catching up on everything I put [...

Trial Preparation

Posted on April 09, 2008
You know, trial preparation is pretty tedious. I’m a seat-of-the-pants kind of guy and I have a hard time sitting and reviewing everything, deciding what I want to use, figuring out how to get it into the record… There’s no question that it helps to be organized, but I’ve never been an organizer and when [...

Magistrate Court

Posted on April 08, 2008
Our firm represents a number of City’s and is responsible for prosecuting traffic violations and other violations of each City’s Code of Oridinances. So, I spend plenty of time in magistrate court. Today, I was there for over three hours and presented my one case in a matter of about 10 minutes...

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