Yesterday, just when I needed some lawyer humor, Craig Williams posted about his recent run-in at court with the cellphone police. Actually, it concerned one of them new-fangled picture-takin’, call-makin’, bread-bakin’ PDAs. [In my day, a PDA was a public display of affection, and not a provocative device of annoyance.] Being a man who hates to be inconvenienced, but who has an admirable sense of humor, Craig has supplied us with his usual dose of understated whimsy, plus lots of links concerning both cellphone nannies and courthouse personnel.
Having been forced to go through court metal detectors a second time on too many occasions (often to feed the one-hour parking meters that surround the Family Court in Schenectady — do not get me started on parking meters!), I am not totally unsympathetic to Craig’s plight. On the other hand, having vented over cellphone use in many other circumstances (e.g., here), it should surprise no one that this old fogey is siding with the miffed marshalls and the jaundiced jurists. Cellphones and tiny cameras don’t belong in the courtroom (not to mention the guns made to look like cellular telephones).
Update (05-03-04): See this warning from law.com: “Most federal courthouses ban two items: weapons … and cell phones. For other courts, lawyers and clients would be wise to check local rules. But there does seem to be one consistent rule of thumb for cell phones: If you bring it to court, one day it will ring — and it will cost you.” [Thanks to Nancy for the pointer.]
Non Sequitur Postscript: I’m not an investor, but I want to thank the folks at Google for making it so easy for me to find stuff on my own weblog. We don’t have search capabilities, but even if we did, it couldn’t be quicker than the eyeblink it takes to locate a posting that I want to link to or use to refresh my ever-foggier recollection. Guess I’m not a Total Luddite.