The Better Chancery Practice Blog

Instead of shining his lamp, I guess he’d take out a want ad in the Meridian Star like this dude did last Sunday …

In a way, I’m kind of pulling for him to have success in finding a non-wimp, honest lawyer.

Thanks to Pam Bittick, Esq., for this.

[SIDE NOTE:  If my information is correct, the gentleman who ran this ad was actually a candidate for governor in 2007.]

Tom Freeland’s NMissCommentor blog yesterday had a post entitled Judge Primeaux and the Hydra, which referenced my THE BEST DEFENSE IS A BOILERPLATE post immediately below. It prompted a flurry of comments about pleading affirmative defenses.  The comments are worth reading, but the graphic alone is worth following the link.

Looking at the comments on NMC, the humor fault line appears to run a jagged course with the circuit and federal practitioners on the “not funny” or “I don’t get it” side, and the lawyers with chancery experience on the other, humorous, side.  Those with chancery experience recognize that most of those defenses could never have any applicability in a divorce case, no matter what, and raising them is as ludicrous as a defendant raising recrimination or condonation as a defense to an automobile accident complaint, or unclean hands in a slip and fall case.  [A side question … if you did raise those classic chancery defenses in a circuit court case, reckon the lawyer on the other side would file for Rule 11 sanctions? My money says he/she would.]

I recognize that we in chancery inhabit a strange and alien world for those who seldom venture here.  We deal with matters where the shades of gray have their own shades of gray, and in the absence of juries that are always in danger of being infected by legal poisons, we usually take a somewhat more relaxed approach.  That ambiguity unsettles some, I know.  [I was at a rules committee meeting last week discussing some chancery matters with another member and I heard a lawyer next to me say to another, “I’m glad I don’t practice in chancery court.”]  In circuit court the rules are the rules. Period. In chancery, the rules are the rules until they run up against the best interest of a child or ward.  And without juries the rules of evidence can sometimes be like the speed limit in Italy — merely a suggestion.

As for the absurd divorce defenses, we chancery denizens here on the eastern edge of Mississippi civilization have had a good laugh about them over the past few months, and the perpetrators have good-naturedly endured the ribbing about them.  No pleadings were ever in danger of being dismissed. I never really put anyone to a hearing for those ridiculous pleadings.

Tame the hydra and she will be your friend.

Chief Justice Waller has appointed Judge L. Joseph Lee as Chief Judge of the COA.

New Presiding Judges are Judge Tyree Irving and Judge Kenny Griffis.

For: 58

Against: 59

As expected, Governor Barbour appointed Judge Leslie King of the Court of Appeals to replace Presiding Justice James Graves, who has left the Mississippi Supreme Court to serve on the US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.

The press release from Chief Justice Waller:

February 23, 2011

Mississippi Supreme Court Chief Justice Bill Waller Jr. welcomed Justice Leslie D. King to the state’s highest court and thanked Gov. Haley Barbour for his appointment.

Chief Justice Waller said, “Judge King has provided strong and effective leadership of the Court of Appeals for nearly seven years. The Court of Appeals reviews hundreds of legal decisions each year, giving prompt and thorough attention to each case. It is essential that matters affecting people’s lives and liberty be addressed quickly, yet thoroughly. Judge King has guided the Court of Appeals in fulfilling its mission.”

“I welcome Justice King to the Supreme Court. His work ethic and extensive knowledge of the law will be a tremendous asset to the state’s highest court,” Chief Justice Waller said.

Justice King will fill the position vacated by Presiding Justice James E. Graves Jr.,who was appointed to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Gov. Barbour will appoint a judge to the vacancy on the Mississippi Court of Appeals. Justice Jess H. Dickinson of Gulfport, third in seniority on the Supreme Court, has become a presiding justice of the Supreme Court.

Mississippi has a two-tier appellate court system. The Mississippi Supreme Court is the court of last resort among state courts. The Mississippi Court of Appeals, an intermediate appellate court, hears cases assigned by the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court has discretion over whether to review decisions of the Court of Appeals. If the Supreme Court declines review, the Court of Appeals decision stands.

The judicial pay raise bill was called for a third time today to keep it alive until the ultimate deadline around mid-March.  This is a tactic commonly used when the sense is that there are not enough votes to pass.  It gives more time to marshal votes.

My sources suggest that there was plenty of misinformation floated today. There were astronomical figures circulated about how much the bill will cost the counties due to county court, although only 5 counties would be affected.  DHS weighed in against it due to the increase in filing fees, despite the fact that the chancellors can and do assess costs against the defaulting child support payors.

I hope this turns out all right, but I’m not optimistic.  I look at judges like Mason and Bailey who have served the state faithfully and have done a phenomenal job with only a rare reward of a pay increase, and I wonder what the message is that our legislators are trying to send.  The judge is nearly always the lowest paid lawyer in the room, yet they manage to uphold the dignity and authority of the State of Mississippi day in and day out.

I sincerely believe that if the members of the bar will get behind this and push their legislators, it will pass.

One last request:  Please talk to your legislator.  We need the best government we can afford, not the cheapest we can get by with.  I won’t bother you with this any more.