Humor and the Law, Part Five

In honor of April Fools’ Day, the editors of the blog asked the faculty of the Law School to share their favorite examples of legal humor. For the last several days, we have shared a different faculty member’s submission.  Our final submission is from Professor Lisa Mazzie.


More (supposedly real) excerpts from trial transcripts:

 

 

QUESTION: What is your date of birth?

ANSWER: July fifteenth.

QUESTION: What year?

ANSWER: Every year.

_____________

QUESTION: What gear were you in at the moment of impact?

ANSWER: Gucci sweats and Reebocks.

__________

QUESTION: This myasthenia gravis that you have, does it affect your memory at all?

ANSWER: Yes.

QUESTION: And in what way does it affect your memory?

ANSWER: I forget.

QUESTION: You forget. Can you give us an example of something you’ve forgotten?

Continue ReadingHumor and the Law, Part Five

Professor Lindsey Honored for VITA Work

Professor Vada Waters Lindsey today was honored by the United States Postal Service as a one of fourteen “Women Putting Their Stamp on Metro Milwaukee.”  Professor Lindsey was honored in the Government Service or Law category for her tireless work on the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program, which program has served more than 1,000 people in six years at Marquette University Law School.  Aside from coordinating the program, Professor Lindsey also trains all the student volunteers who assist with the tax preparation.  The MULS VITA site has a 100 percent accuracy rate.

Professor Lindsey received her award today at a luncheon at the Country Inn in Waukesha. Congratulations, Professor Lindsey.

Continue ReadingProfessor Lindsey Honored for VITA Work

Celebrating March 22, 1877: Women First Allowed Bar Admission in Wisconsin

On March 22, 1877, the Wisconsin legislature passed a bill that prohibited denying a person admission to the state bar on the basis of sex.  The bill was in no small part due to the efforts of Lavinia Goodell, the first woman admitted to the state bar in Wisconsin.

Goodell was born in New York in 1839 and moved to Janesville in 1871 when she was 32 years old.  Goodell was interested in the law, but no law firm would take her on as an apprentice, which was a common path to becoming a lawyer in the 19th century.  So she studied law on her own.  Her dedication to law apparently won over Pliny Norcross, a partner in the Janesville firm of Norcross and Jackson and eventually Goodell worked there before striking out on her own.  Norcross was instrumental in helping Goodell gain admission to the Rock County bar in 1874.  Goodell initially did collections work, but then began to make a successful career out of doing work for women’s temperance groups.

It wasn’t until Goodell needed to appeal a case to the Wisconsin Supreme Court that her gender became an issue.  According to the Wisconsin Historical Society, at that time it was customary for the Wisconsin Supreme Court to allow any lawyer admitted to any circuit court bar to practice before it.  Not so for Lavinia Goodell.

In 1876, Wisconsin Supreme Court unanimously and unequivocally denied her motion to appear before that court. (In re Goodell, 39 Wis. 232 (1876)).

Continue ReadingCelebrating March 22, 1877: Women First Allowed Bar Admission in Wisconsin
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