Featured Legal News (Dec. 6 - Dec. 7, ‘06) 'Locked and Loaded' in the Courtroom Posted on Thursday, December 7, 2006 The National Law Journal has a fascinating and somewhat disturbing story on how more judges are bringing guns into their courtrooms for protection. Many states allow judges to bring in their own guns, and other states are trying to add or clarify rules to allow the practice. The state of New York's judicial ethics committee recently decided that it's ethical for a judge to keep his own pistol in court. Kansas is planning to allow judges to carry concealed firearms at the beginning of the year. In Florida, which also allows guns for judges, a judge was disciplined this year after warning a defense attorney that he was "locked and loaded." The article doesn't get into whether there are any examples of judges having to use their weapons in self defense. Tell us what you think by visiting our comments page. Send any news items to news@lawdragon.com. 'Love, Money, Anger' — And Mediation Posted on Thursday, December 7, 2006 Though it's been out for a little while now, the latest book we've added to the Lawdragon bookshelf is "Improvisational Negotiation: A Mediator's Stories of Conflict About Love, Money, Anger — And the Strategies That Resolved Them," written by longtime Southern California mediator Jeffrey Krivis, who is based in Encino, Calif. The book's anecdotes share Krivis' insights into successful mediation practices. Krivis urges creativity in finding possible areas of cooperation between parties, and he offers tips on tactics like "reading minds," or at least body language, of the mediation participants. Each anecdote is followed by a "What Strategies Can We Learn?" discussion. You can check out Krivis' mediation website. "Improvisational Negotiation" is put out by Jossey-Bass/A Wiley Imprint books. Tell us what you think by visiting our comments page. Send any news items to news@lawdragon.com. Want to Plead Guilty? Forget About It Posted on Wednesday, December 6, 2006 Amnesia might be a fun twist in episodes of Perry Mason or the Rockford Files, but not in real federal cases. Donald Eckard admits to stealing valuable documents from the Filson Historical Society in Louisville, Ky., including letters authored by presidents Thomas Jefferson and John Quincy Adams, Confederacy president Jefferson Davis and explorer William Clark. But U.S. District Judge Jennifer Coffman said she couldn't accept Eckard's guilty plea because he had said at an earlier hearing that he had amnesia and couldn't recall taking the documents. The law requires that he admit to knowingly committing the crimes. A trial date is now set for March. Prosecutors and Eckard's lawyer hope to work out another plea deal, but it wasn't immediately clear how they'll work through this complication created by his amnesia claim. The FBI found some of the letters framed in Eckard's home. Tell us what you think by visiting our comments page. Send any news items to news@lawdragon.com. Page: 1 of 1 pages for this article
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