A valuable guide, by an insider, into our nation's most important legal institutions.
Federal appellate judge Coffin (The Ways of a Judge, 1980, etc.) takes the reader on an erudite, informative and witty tour of American appellate courts, those courts that review the legal decisions of trial courts and give litigants a second chance at justice.
Coffin is judge on the United States Court of Appeals, which makes most authoritative decisions on federal legal issues (the U.S. Supreme Court, the only high court in the federal system, hears only a relative handful of cases each year). He does not limit his treatment to this important court, however, but examines the appellate process in both the federal and state systems. After presenting the historical background and present characteristics of the often sharply contrasting English common law and European civil law models, Coffin lays out at length the distinctive elements of American appellate practice. He contrasts the federal and state appellate systems, pointing out both the dominance of state appellate courts (they make 85 to 90 percent of all appellate decisions in this country, he concludes) and the problems that dog them (underfunding, for instance). Insightfully and often humorously, the author treats virtually every other aspect of appellate advocacy and judgeship: the judge's "chambers family,'' including relationships with clerks; the development of an adequate record for appeal; the submission and reading of briefs; the preparation and presentation of oral arguments; the judges' conference, at which the merits of the case are discussed; and the drafting of opinions by the judges. Coffin offers his own thinking on judging appeals and offers suggestions, such as instituting alternative forums for dispute resolution that are aimed at preserving the central role of the appellate court in our rapidly changing society and legal culture.
A valuable guide, by an insider, into our nation's most important legal institutions.Pub Date: Feb. 28, 1994
ISBN: 0-393-03582-4
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1993
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
IN THE NEWS
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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