A Matter of Opinions
Several weeks have now passed since my decision
to discontinue my legal studies. I have not looked
back—with the exception of last week, when I
received my first semester grades (which were
generally satisfactory). But just this morning, I
came across the following excerpt from my Contracts
casebook. I jotted it down on my last day of class
because it was such an outrageous example of
erudite legalese:
- "A reiteration of the fundamental principle
that a general merger clause
is ineffective to exclude parol evidence to show
fraud in inducing the
contract would then be dispositive of the
issue."
When I read that passage, my eyes first crossed,
then glazed over, then dried out as I stared and
stared and stared, trying to glean some semblance
of meaning from it. Luckily, most cases were more
readable than the one quoted above. Cases printed
in casebooks are mostly from appellate courts, and
appellate courts generally have a panel of judges
(rather than just one judge, as at the trial
level). As a result, there exists a wide variety of
writing styles (and abilities) in judicial
opinions. Some are as dry as the stale biscuit
above, some are as juicy as a Valencia orange. Some
even made me laugh out loud.
Reading court decisions definitely requires all
of your synapses. I have been known to crawl into
bed with a good novel, only to fall asleep before
I've even read a full page. During law school, I
routinely stayed up as late as two or three o'clock
in the morning, reading my casebook in bed.
Strangely, I never had a problem staying awake. The
obvious conclusion is not that Learned Hand is more
riveting than Stephen King, but rather that it
requires a lot more brainpower to decipher Hand's
reasoning than King's narratives.
I can't say I'll miss reading such arcane
material, but the experience of digesting so many
judicial opinions definitely enhanced my analytical
abilities. Looking back on the past six months, I
consider my time in law school a tremendous
learning experience that will help me in many areas
of my personal and professional life. I may not
have earned a JD degree, but I certainly learned a
lot.
Development note: I've
noticed that this site doesn't look like it should
in Netscape Navigator. Rather than waste time
jury-rigging it to look right in a
soon-to-be-obsolete browser, I'll just add the
cliché "This site best viewed with Internet
Explorer."
©2003 Michael
Strickland ALL RIGHTS
RESERVED
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Previously...
2/2:
Suicidal
Bravado
2/1:
Godspeed,
Columbia
Archive: JANUARY
2003
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