July, 2003
Articles in this issue:
Celebrity Legal Issues: Streisand Thinks Helicopters and High-Powered Photography Are Intrusive (And She Isn't?)
Issue: Is a Web Site containing a picture of Streisand's Malibu mansion invading her privacy or violating the state's "anti-paparazzi law?" Streisand v. Adelman, Case No. SC077257, Superior Court of California, Los Angeles County
Virginia Legal Matters: Ordinance Barring Public Nudity Unconstitutionally Vague; Nothing Vague About Stripper-Defendant
Issue: Does ordinance violate the First Amendment rights of striptease dancers? Boyd v. Henrico County, No. 0377-02-2, 2003 WL 21321076 (Va. Ct. App, June 10, 2003).
Supreme Court Allows Claim for Outsider Reverse Veil Piercing; Case Has Nothing To Do With Islam
Issue: Does a complaint for outsider reverse veil piercing state a claim under Virginia law? C.F. Trust, Inc. v. First Flight, LP, No. 022212, 2003 WL 21308837 (Va., June 6, 2003).
National Legal Matters: N.Y. Court Nixes Subway Authority's Rate Increase; Does Nothing Re: Smell of Urine in Stations
Issue: Did the MTA violate public hearing requirements by incorrectly representing that it had a sizeable deficit?) New York Public Interest Research Group Straphangers, Inc. v. Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Inc., No. 107871/03 (N.Y. Sup. Ct., New York Co., May 14, 2003).
A Note from Ed McPhillips
Some Major Research Headaches (Besides Just Research Itself)
I know the raison d'etre of my practice is that my clients are busy attorneys who do not have either the time, resources, or masochistic tendencies necessary to do legal research. So, I hesitate to cite the headaches my job causes me, lest my clients conclude that I am not the bibliophilic, analytical superstar I profess to be.
Gratuitous
Lawyer Joke
Q: How many lawyers does it take to roof a house?
A: Depends on how thin you slice them
Nonetheless, let it be known that the following, for example, vex me: (1) old, non-key numbered cases that are 83 pages long but have only a one-line proposition relevant to the matter at hand, (2) cases from outside jurisdictions that are positive and on point but have never been cited in another reported case in the entire world, (3) indecipherable statutes written ala Beowulf that have no reported cases construing them, (4) cases needing a Westlaw search but involving generic search terms such as "the", (5) any research matter which requires figuring out what the hell they're talking about in Louisiana law, (6) the simple, straightforward language of the Code of Federal Regulations or the Federal Register, and (7) when my WordPerfect 10 program freezes up at 11:30 p.m. as I work on a byzantine trial brief due the next morning, leading me to let fly choice, unconstructive epithets.
Actually, these and other research headaches are not Ed-specific. All of you know the frustration when the one volume you need of a 30-volume treatise is missing from the library shelf. So, while I have shared some of my epithet-inducing travails, let it also be known that I am ready to face legal research's "slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" (Thanks Hamlet) and do your legwork for you, freeing up time for you to engage in other epithet-inducing activities.