Lawhaha.com - Andrew McClurg's Legal Humor

Buy New Second Edition of McClurg’s 1L of a Ride

Andrew J. McClurg — Mon, 13 May 2013 16:07:34 +0000

If you’re having problems getting the newly revamped and expanded second edition of 1L of a Ride from Amazon (they keep running out), order it directly from the publisher, where it’s always in stock.

1L of a Ride is assigned as recommended or required reading at law schools across the country and has eighty-one Amazon Customer Reviews with an average 5-star rating.

New Legal Humor: “Tales from the Courtroom”

Andrew J. McClurg — Sun, 12 May 2013 17:02:33 +0000

A new book, Tales from the Courtroom, by English lawyer Brian Harris offers an interesting mix of historical, mysterious and humorous legal vignettes, mostly of UK origin, but also including a few American tales.

The book includes a fair share of dark legal humor, such as the tale of a Scottish judge named Kames who in 1780 found himself trying Matthew Hay, his former chess partner, for murder. When the verdict of guilty was returned, Kames chillingly remarked, “That’s checkmate to you, Matthew!” (Harris points out that the statement must be read in a Scottish accent for full effect.)

Firearms Policy and the Black Community

Andrew J. McClurg — Thu, 09 May 2013 18:10:29 +0000

Andrew Jay McClurg, Firearms Policy and the Black Community: Rejecting the “Wouldn’t You Want a Gun If Attacked” Argument, 45 Connecticut Law Review ___ (forthcoming 2013).

The gun lobby has succeeded in focusing the gun debate on a narrow, oversimplified question: “If a criminal attacked you, wouldn’t you prefer to have a gun to protect yourself?” This article asserts that the question—which correlates with a “more guns” argument—is a red herring, a diversion that leads us off track and blinds us to the need for comprehensive strategies to address the complex, polycentric issues of gun violence in America.

Law Teacher Has Low Opinion of Legal Profession

Andrew J. McClurg — Tue, 07 May 2013 16:18:52 +0000

–From Tony Arsenault, Laval University (Quebec), Date of event: Spring 2013

One of my friends took Legal Philosophy, a class whose teacher is known as a bit of a jerk and a little dismissive of lawyering as a profession.

They were discussing how to write the essay that was to be their final exam. Someone in the class asked: “Should we consider that the essay’s intended readers have any knowledge of law at

New Legal Cartoonist

Andrew J. McClurg — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 00:07:37 +0000

For funny and clever legally related cartoons, there is no beating Stu Rees and wife Maddy Dodson. But we always need more legal humor. Here’s a new sample from aspiring cartoonist, legal and otherwise, Mark Purdy. What do you think?

Spot the Tort: “Crowned with a Spike Right Through My Head”

Andrew J. McClurg — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 14:51:01 +0000

There are potential torts and there are POTENTIAL TORTS. This hanging rusty spike stands out even on the gritty, tort-filled streets and sidewalks of downtown Memphis. As you can see in the second picture, it’s hanging at a level where a person could walk right into it.

I snapped this shot on my way to the annual law review banquet a week ago and was surprised to see it still hanging yesterday on my way back from lunch.

The headline reference, of course, is to a line from the Rolling Stone’s Jumpin’ Jack Flash.

Spot the Tort: How to Move a Refrigerator in 10 Easy Torts

Andrew J. McClurg — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 20:40:11 +0000

You think this is bad, you should see how the guy tried to move his living room. Not the furniture, the entire room.

Why waste money on a delivery charge just to save a few million in accident costs?

–Thanks to Tommy Rogers

Warning: No Scream Impressions or Diaperless Tots

Andrew J. McClurg — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 19:58:24 +0000

In Torts, we were talking about product warning defects and, particularly, the warnings found on most plastic bags. These are warnings to adults to keep plastic bags away from babies, cribs, etc. because they present a suffication hazard. Using various bags as examples, we talked about the efficacy of such warnings in terms of size, placement and whether they needed to be in multiple languages. (We also discussed whether the risk is obvious, in which case there would be no duty to warn of it.)

This week a student brought me a plastic bag that attempted to solve the efficacy problems by omitting written warnings

Warning: Play-Doh Skill Level May Be Low

Andrew J. McClurg — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 00:05:38 +0000

When you were a kid, or maybe still, did you ever wonder why, no matter how hard you tried, you couldn’t reproduce the product results with your toys similar to those represented in the advertising? These failures caused massive wounds to self-esteem to millions of children. The examples are too many too count. Legos, Erector Sets, Lincoln Logs. How were we supposed to build that 10,000-piece castle on the box with fifty pieces?

At least one modern manufacturer is paying attention to protecting the egos of today’s youth via product warnings. Play-Doh warns kids, at least the ones who read product warnings, to not get their artistic hopes up because:

Warning: Quit Dancing on Your Trash Dumpster

Andrew J. McClurg — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 20:41:23 +0000

Can you interpret this pictorial warning?

The entertainment lawyer who sent it along thought maybe her landlord was warning tenants not to practice their parcours on the trash dumpster. “That stick figure is having far too much fun,” she wrote. “Look at his exuberant arms!

He definitely does appear to be celebrating a ”Ta-Da!” kind of moment.

Remember: In evaluating a pictorial warning, you have to imagine you can’t read the textual warnings, either because you can’t read at all or can’t read English or other language the verbal warning is printed in.

This one rates only a 1.0 on

Warning: Giant Kids at Play

Andrew J. McClurg — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 17:06:34 +0000

Slow down. The Incredible Hulk’s offspring may be playing in your neighborhood.

Hmm, maybe kids really are getting bigger. First, we had the titan-tyke falling from the diaper-changing station and now we have, courtesy of a first-year law student at the University of Memphis, this sign cautioning that children are at play. Very large children. Children who, judging by the picture, could contend in the decathlon at the Olympics.

–Thanks to Rob Clapper.

Where Have All the Funny Law School Stories Gone?

Andrew J. McClurg — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 22:53:27 +0000

… to the tune of Peter, Paul & Mary’s “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?”

Lawhaha.com has collected funny law school stories from seventy-four law schools, but since the site was transformed into a WordPress blog, story submissions have dwindled. Must have something to do with the layout or maybe it’s the annoying CAPTCHA program on the Contact page, which requires people to type in those hard-to-read words as a spam-filter.

Whatever the reason, we know hilarity continues to unfold in the world’s law schools and want to preserve it here. Please send along your

Warning: Titan Tyke Falls, Cleans Up Afterwards

Andrew J. McClurg — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 00:37:16 +0000

It’s always fun, fun, and more fun deciphering pictorial warnings.

Here’s a warning, along with a request, from a restaurant restroom in Naples, Florida: be careful not to let your baby fall off of the changing station, and also, don’t forget to throw away the dirty diaper! A good warning and reasonable request.

Remember, to interpret pictorial warnings, you have to imagine you can’t read the textual warnings below the symbols, either because you can’t read at all or can’t

Insurance Humor: “50 Ways to Leave No Cover”

Andrew J. McClurg — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 00:22:46 +0000

Meteor damage: Coverage exclusion reason 51?

Insurance law expert Randy Maniloff shows that insurance law doesn’t have to be dry. His insurance coverage newsletter Coverage Opinions takes a light-hearted look at insurance, recently celebrating Valentine’s Day with a funny parody of a Paul Simon classic: “50 Ways To Leave No Cover,” an inventory of the many ways insurance companies manage to deny coverage. Here’s a taste:

There must be fifty ways

To leave no cover

Your notice was late Kate

And then you didn’t cooperate

Law School Makes Students Overly Analytical

Andrew J. McClurg — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 23:27:24 +0000

A 1L at St. Thomas University School of Law in Miami wrote to say she enjoyed The “Companion Text” to Law School and especially connected to the chapter on the personality changes that occur in law students, specifically, becoming overly analytical. She gave a funny example:

I find it hard trying to switch gears back and forth from analytical law school mode to normal person mode.