Head Slapper of the Week

Since legal issues are such a hot topic these days, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at some of the interesting  workings of the trial courts.  One working that occurs in trial courts are motions, legal procedural actions to bring limited, contested issue for decision.  One such motion occurred in the Tampa, FL area where Frank Louderback, an attorney representing a man accused in a murder-for-hire scheme, asked the judge to suspend the trial for one day to participate in the Ernest Hemingway Look-Alike Contest in Key West, FL.  Here's some details from the news article:

In his motion for trial suspension, Louderback wrote that he would need to drive to Key West when the trial recesses on July 19, and that he blocked out six hotel rooms for family friends and others "and has had to pay non-refundable deposits."

Well, the judge apparently wasn't too sympathetic:

U.S. District Court Judge Steven Merryday countered in his decision on Louderback’s motion: "Between a murder-for-hire trial and an annual look-alike contest, surely Hemingway, a perfervid admirer of grace under pressure, would choose the trial." (Perfervid: impassioned)

He then quotes a Dorothy Parker article about Hemingway from the Nov. 30, 1929, New Yorker: "He works like hell, and through it .... He had the most profound bravery. ... He has never turned off on an easier path than the one he staked for himself. It takes courage."

The judge continued: "Perhaps a lawyer who evokes Hemingway can resist relaxing frolic in favor of solemn duty." He then quotes Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises: “Isn’t it pretty to think so?”

Merryday’s decision: "Best of luck to counsel in next year’s contest. The motion is denied."

I guess it never hurts to ask.  Three Head Slaps

ead more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/06/29/2873976/lawyer-suspend-murder-trial-so.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/06/29/2873976/lawyer-suspend-murder-trial-so.html#storylink=cpy