The Better Chancery Practice Blog

Over there on the right of the page is a list of links headed “LAWYER BLOGS.”  These links will take you to blogs published by Mississippi lawyers on topics of interest to Mississippi practitioners.  My intent is to provide links that you can check frequently for useful, entertaining information.  Blogs that are not updated regularly are deleted until they resume regular posting.

Several of these blogs I read every day.  Some I check occasionally to catch up.  Some are aimed at laypeople, and are clearly marketing efforts.  They might give you an idea or two about your own marketing.

All of these blogs are lawyers using the internet to inform, entertain, increase client base, or promote ideas about the law.  I encourage you to check them out yourself and use them as a resource.

• Elder Law Blog.  Ronald C. Morton of Clinton posts on matters of interest in the filed of elder law.  For you lawyers who handle conservatorships, guardianships, trusts and wills, there is some material here that may just help you in a given case.
• Hattiesburg Divorce Lawyer.  Tim Evans of Hattiesburg has a blog that targets clients and lay people who are seeking info about divorce and related issues.  It’s a clever marketing tool, and you will find the information useful from an attorney’s standpoint.
• Mississippi Accident Lawyer Blog.  Paul Snow of Jackson uses his blog primarily for marketing, but he also offers informative posts about personal injury litigation.
• Mississippi Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog.  This is the blog of Curt Crowley of Jackson, who takes criminal defense issues and posts about them in terms that laypersons can understand.
• Mississippi Lawyer Blog.  The Coxwell law firm of Jackson posts about legal matters for a general audience.
• MS Litigation Review & Commentary.  A blog I read every day.  Philip Thomas of Jackson focuses like a laser beam on Mississippi litigation, verdicts, appellate decisions, and issues affecting Mississippi practitioners.  Highly recommended.
• Mullin’ Over.  Winky Glover of Meridian’s blog on tax issues.  Alas, not updated frequently enough.
• NMissCommentor.  Another highly recommended blog that I read every day.  Tom Freeland of Oxford posts on a wide variety of topics including Mississipi, regional and national legal issues, the blues, food and restaurants, books, politics, current events, etc., etc.   He was a superior source of information on the Scruggs scandal, and continues to cover its developments.
• randywallace.  A new blog by Randy Wallace of Clinton.  He posts on a variety of topics, and it will be interesting to see how his blog develops.
• Thus Blogged Anderson.  Ah, yes.  The blog of the enigmatic, eccentric and quasi-anonymous “Anderson,” who styles himself as “Another proud member of the irony-based community.”  His posts on almost every subject imaginable are notable for their sometimes caustic wit, insight and sharp intelligence.  Another blog I read nearly every day.

Do yourself a favor and pick a handful of these links to add to your favorites or bookmarks list on your browser.

The death and devastation that fell on our state and neighboring Alabama last Wednesday is sobering and sad.  Four killed in our own Clarke County.  Another three in Kemper to the north.  A woman who works with Lisa lost four members of her family in the storms, including her husband and mother.  And Smithville.  The images take your breath away.  A friend from Tupelo carried a truckload of supplies down there early Thursday morning before Homeland Security cordoned it off, and he said that the photographs are inadequate to capture the scope and severity of the damage.  He saw bodies scattered in the wreckage and the survivors wandering in shock.

The reports of people responding with help bring a lump to your throat.  Families in the surrounding communities are taking the homeless families in until they can make other arrangements.  A man in Columbus who caters barbecues hitched up his cookers, rounded up some friends and lots of food, and set up in Smithville to cook free for anyone there who needed it.  Yesterday on the Square in Oxford in the midst of Double Decker people were taking up money for the people in the devastated areas.  There were thousands of people there, so I hope they reaped a bountiful harvest.

While so much of Mississippi was being walloped last week by the deadly tornadoes, the judges were in Jackson for the spring conference.  Most of us spent a lot of time on cell phones checking on things back home.  Chancellor Jim Davidson of Columbus learned that his home in Oxford had five trees on it and roof and water damage.  All of our families made it through okay, though.

As always, I picked up a lot of helpful information at the judges’ meeting, and I will be passing much of it on to you here.

On Friday, Lisa and I met up at Oxford for the Double Decker Festival, which is without a doubt one of the best street festivals in the state.  At DD Sarurday morning we ran into folks from Meridian and old friends the Gambrells of Oxford and the Tutors of Pontotoc.  Robert Gambrell, a bankruptcy lawyer, told me the roof was ripped off his office in the storm that hit Oxford, and many files and some equipment were damaged.

The weather for DD was a gorgeous counterpoint to the turmoil of the days before.  It was clear, sunny and cool, and a gentle breeze kept things comfortable.  After wandering the more than 100 vendor booths admiring paintings, pottery, handicrafts, jewelry and whatnots, and enjoying the music and aroma of delicious food wafting across the area, we ambled over to Tom Freeland’s office to meet and visit with him.  He treated me to a delicious rum punch made with fresh-squeezed limes and a generous dose of rum.  Now that’s hospitality.  I think next year I may bring a couple of lawn chairs and trespass on the front lawn of Tom’s office just off the Square on West Jackson so we can make a longer day of it.  Lisa’s back does not enjoy the few hours of walking and standing that DD entails.

From there we had lunch at Two Stick (owned by friends of my daughter) and headed back to our Oxford retreat tired but happy.

Next week we’re going to give some money to that nurse who lost four family members.  I encourage all of you to give whatever you can to the Red Cross or your church, or whomever you know will put it to good use to help the Mississippians who are hurting right now.  No gift is too small for that purpose.  And let’s remember them in our prayers.

In a post aptly entitled Intestinal Fortitude, the blog Mocking Words enlightens us about two recent cases in which various surprising items were discovered in cavity searches of a woman in Scranton, PA and a man in Sarasota, FL.

As the term “cavity” implies, the searches involved rather intimate internal regions of the body accessible only by means that you probably prefer not to think about in detail.

The Scranton woman had concealed 51 packages of heroin, some 30-odd drug baggies, 8-1/2 prescription pills and fifty-two dollars and twenty two cents in her “cavity.”

*Ouch*

In the case of the Sarasota man, the routine cavity search on his booking into jail turned up: 17 oxycodone pills; one cigarette; six matches; a flint (!); an empty hypodermic syringe with an eraser stuck on the needle; one lip balm container; one condom; a drug store recipt; and a coupon.  I don’t know about you, but I don’t care to think about how that stuff got into that — uh — cavity.  I also don’t care to think about whether some unsuspecting bona fide purchaser for value without notice was going to smoke that cigarette or use that lip balm <shudder>.  And how much would you have to be paid to have the job of the store clerk to take that coupon?

Human ingenuity is an amazing thing, isn’t it?  If those two geniuses had devoted as much time and effort toward world peace as they did to hiding stuff in their nether regions, the world might be a better place.  Or maybe not.