Few appear to read the briefs, focusing on judicial doctrine, without getting an editorial rebuke for writing “legalese,” thought to alienate a chunk of readership.
Gadfly Michael Horne has a well-researched piece out topical to Milwaukee’s race for City Attorney.
Horne digged out a case that blew up in City Atty Grant Langley's face, awarding a bank $400,000, paid by Milwaukee taxpayers.
Besides the $400,000 judgement, the judge, Ralph Adam Fine, denounced the City Atty's office under Langley's administration, for calling the bank’s legal position: "Hogwash," "Ludicrous," "Crazy," and "Obstructionistanarchist".
Writes Judge Fine:
The brief submitted to us by the City of Milwaukee is overly tendentious and lacks the civility that lawyers owe to both their adversaries and to the courts.Horne’s analysis may prove influential in the Milwaukee City Atty’s race, an interesting election in this year of political “change”.
The following has no place in a brief before any court in this state: accusing an opposing party of seeking “political anarchy” (capitalization omitted), “anarchy,” “anarchy with a vengeance,” and “taxpayer anarchy”.
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Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny.
ReplyDelete~Edmund Burke
The race for Milwaukee City Attorney is off and running.
Longtime City Attorney Grant Langley versus State Representative Pedro Colón (D-Milwaukee) in what promises to be a spirited race for a heretofore obscure office.
Colón is out to change the position, with an activist’s approach.
Colón has made some enemies and stepped on some toes as an activist attorney and state representative, but he brings a broad coalition in his campaign for the April 1 election.
As has been widely noted, Congresswoman Gwen Moore, District Attorney John Chisholm, the incoming president of the Milwaukee Bar Association and the Wisconsin Trial Lawyers Association and almost all of Milwaukee’s legislative delegation have endorsed Colón’s hard-line approach to flushing out destructive policy, and becoming part of the solution in addressing city-wide problems.