Comments on: Judicial Verbosity – It’s Not Easy Being Green http://law.marquette.edu/facultyblog/2009/07/15/judicial-verbosity-%e2%80%93-it%e2%80%99s-not-easy-being-green/ Sun, 12 Feb 2012 17:44:22 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Dennis Elverman http://law.marquette.edu/facultyblog/2009/07/15/judicial-verbosity-%e2%80%93-it%e2%80%99s-not-easy-being-green/comment-page-1/#comment-25143 Dennis Elverman Thu, 16 Jul 2009 18:05:17 +0000 http://law.marquette.edu/facultyblog/?p=6126#comment-25143 While I appreciate Professor Kircher's desire that appellate opinions be concise and to the point, as a member of Marquette Law's class of 2009 currently working as a law clerk at a general practice law firm, there have been many instances where I find the verbosity and comprehensiveness of the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s decisions to be quite helpful. While it is true that many cases are only important for a very specific issue, there are other cases where a comprehensive review of a subject can be very useful for an attorney that is not experienced in a particular area of the law. There have been many times where I have scribbled away on my legal pad while my boss rattled off facts and legal terms which I hadn’t yet been exposed to and really had no idea where to start. However, from the limited information given to me I have often been able to find a Wisconsin Supreme Court or Court of Appeals decision that is written as a sort of treatise that provided me with a sufficient base of knowledge from which to plan my further research. For example, an assignment was given to me regarding a real estate transaction and the potential causes of action that could be brought regarding the transaction and possible defenses to these causes of action. I quickly found the case Below v. Norton, 310 Wis.2d 713 (2008), which set forth the issues surrounding numerous common law claims, statutory claims, and the relationship of the Economic Loss Doctrine to these claims. While Professor Anzivino did a good job imparting the basic concepts of the Economic Loss Doctrine upon me in my contracts class my 1L year, the comprehensive explanation of the Doctrine’s application in this case made my assignment much easier to write, and it would have been much more difficult to have to pull out many of the issues put forth in this case on my own. While shorter cases like Palsgraf are definitely the preference for students in law school, Palsgraf is of limited use to me in practice. However, the recent decision, Behrendt v. Gulf Underwriters Ins. Co., 2009 WI 71, which is quite lengthy, is of great use to me when trying to understand the concepts of foreseeability, duty and public policy as they relate to a negligence claim. As a young Attorney just getting my feet wet, I often cringe when assigned a project that deals with Federal law or concerns state law outside of Wisconsin because I know I have a lot of work ahead of me. However, if an assignment is a subject covered by Wisconsin law that has been discussed by the Supreme Court relatively recently, I know that I will most likely be able to more quickly understand the subject and the issues surrounding my assignment because there is a good chance that there is a verbose case on the subject, and therefore I will be able to better perform my job for my boss and his clients. While I appreciate Professor Kircher’s desire that appellate opinions be concise and to the point, as a member of Marquette Law’s class of 2009 currently working as a law clerk at a general practice law firm, there have been many instances where I find the verbosity and comprehensiveness of the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s decisions to be quite helpful.

While it is true that many cases are only important for a very specific issue, there are other cases where a comprehensive review of a subject can be very useful for an attorney that is not experienced in a particular area of the law. There have been many times where I have scribbled away on my legal pad while my boss rattled off facts and legal terms which I hadn’t yet been exposed to and really had no idea where to start. However, from the limited information given to me I have often been able to find a Wisconsin Supreme Court or Court of Appeals decision that is written as a sort of treatise that provided me with a sufficient base of knowledge from which to plan my further research. For example, an assignment was given to me regarding a real estate transaction and the potential causes of action that could be brought regarding the transaction and possible defenses to these causes of action. I quickly found the case Below v. Norton, 310 Wis.2d 713 (2008), which set forth the issues surrounding numerous common law claims, statutory claims, and the relationship of the Economic Loss Doctrine to these claims. While Professor Anzivino did a good job imparting the basic concepts of the Economic Loss Doctrine upon me in my contracts class my 1L year, the comprehensive explanation of the Doctrine’s application in this case made my assignment much easier to write, and it would have been much more difficult to have to pull out many of the issues put forth in this case on my own.

While shorter cases like Palsgraf are definitely the preference for students in law school, Palsgraf is of limited use to me in practice. However, the recent decision, Behrendt v. Gulf Underwriters Ins. Co., 2009 WI 71, which is quite lengthy, is of great use to me when trying to understand the concepts of foreseeability, duty and public policy as they relate to a negligence claim.

As a young Attorney just getting my feet wet, I often cringe when assigned a project that deals with Federal law or concerns state law outside of Wisconsin because I know I have a lot of work ahead of me. However, if an assignment is a subject covered by Wisconsin law that has been discussed by the Supreme Court relatively recently, I know that I will most likely be able to more quickly understand the subject and the issues surrounding my assignment because there is a good chance that there is a verbose case on the subject, and therefore I will be able to better perform my job for my boss and his clients.

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