Strange Judicial Opinions is dedicated to those robed raconteurs, rascals and renegades who brighten up the lives of lawyers and law students everywhere by daring to be different.
A legitimate debate exists regarding the extent to which judges should use their written opinions and orders as vehicles for personal creative expression, including humor. Needless to say, at Lawhaha.com, we favor such efforts, when they are clever, intelligent, cute, or just plain weird, and don’t unnecessarily demean lawyers or parties.
Even the soberest of judges can’t help writing amusing opinions and orders in cases involving odd facts, issues or parties. When, for example, a judge has an ex parte communication with a talking cat, is required to address lawsuits against God or Satan or respond to a plaintiff claiming to be a Martian, it’s not easy to retain the solemn tone that is the norm for legal proceedings.
Strange Judicial Opinions collects a variety of amusing or otherwise unusual judicial writings in the categories below. Enjoy!
- Animals
- Bickering Lawyers
- Cranky Judges
- Curious Legal Issues
- Eccentric Judges
- Family Matters
- Frustrated Judges
- Grown Up Content
- Hall of Fame Cases
- Hall of Fame Judges
- Judicial Dilemmas
- Lambasted Lawyers
- Legal Writing
- Literary Judges
- Poetic Judges
- Pop Culture
- Religion
- Sports
- Unusual Parties or Witnesses
- Weird Facts
is a scholar and teacher in the areas of tort law, products liability, legal education, privacy law and firearms policy. He currently holds the Herbert Herff Chair of Excellence in Law at the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law.
