In July of 1948, Walt Disney Productions released “The Trial of Donald Duck,” a short in which Donald, our hero, faces the legal system.  Here’s how the Internet Movie Database summarizes the plot of this criminal prosecution, truly the trial of the century:

Donald is caught in the rain while eating his lunch. He ducks into a restaurant for a cup of coffee, but Chez Pierre is a very ritzy place, and by the time all is said and done, he’s facing a bill for $35.99, and he only got a drop of coffee, and he only has a nickel. Pierre takes him to court, where this story is told, and is ordered to pay $10 or wash dishes for ten days.

Directed by Jack King, with a story by Dan MacManus, the story is a fun one which, of course, doesn’t accurately depict the legal process. But who would expect it to? Our favorite legal mistake: Donald’s lawyer, apparently unaware of the burden of proof, offers to prove to the court that his client is innocent.  Further, he doesn’t even request a jury trial. Best part:  You can watch the six minute short here on YouTube!

About a month ago, we ran a piece asking the question, “Is Music on Vinyl Better?”  Fellow lawyer and friend of the blog Matt J. writes in to respond to our conclusion that compact discs may, in fact, offer the better listening experience:

I don’t know whether vinyl or CD is superior.  I’ve always had the belief that people think vinyl is better, because they listened to vinyl on non-portable devices and, therefore, on potentially superior equipment. That’s the case with me.  When I bought The Uplift Mofo Party Plan on LP and killed a party with my NAD amp, Genesis speakers, and Sony turntable, it was 10x the experience of listening to the copy I ripped (at the highest bit rate I could) from CD and listen to on my iPod and pretty good Sennheiser in-ear headphones. I’m still convinced it’s not the vinyl v. CD that matters, but how you listen.

Remember back in October when we published a piece on bath salts? This new drug continues to be in the news, and this week, Natasha Vargas-Cooper at Spin magazine offers a lengthy investigative piece on the history of the drug and the war against it.

“You’d better come along,” the policeman instructs Archie on the cover of Archie #114, published way, way back in 1960. Obviously, this scene takes place before some important Warren Court jurisprudence, but we can’t help but wonder what Archie did to earn the attention of local law enforcement. (By the way, back in July 2011, we showed you Archie’s encounter with civil litigation.).

Friend of the blog Maxwell S. Kennerly of the Litigation & Trial blog has a piece entitled “The Legal Ethics of Going On A Date With Opposing Counsel.” How about that? Says he: “I’m not in the business of giving out relationship advice, but I can give a handful of pointers relating to protocol in the legal world.” Check it out.

Well, you knew it wouldn’t be long before we returned to the topic of My Cousin Vinny, that movie of movies. In an interview with Will Harris of The Onion AV Club, Bruce McGill, the actor who played Sheriff Farley in My Cousin Vinny, shares some memories of that role.  Published earlier this week, the piece includes these thoughts from McGill:

BM: Well, I think that was just [casting director] David Rubin. I just went in and read, and I think I read really well, but I think David Rubin is one of the great casting directors. He was an assistant at that time, but I just think he’s a wonderful casting director and one of the best readers with you, which makes a difference. When you go in and the casting director reads with you, if they can’t read and they’re not a very good actor, the scene suffers, obviously. But I think I got the part from the read with David Rubin, but the first thing Joe Pesci said—and I knew Joe from New York, and I see Joe a lot out here on the golf course—and in a very Godfather-ly manner, “Yeah, y’know, I approved you for that role.” [Laughs.] I said, “Oh, thank you, Godfather, thank you!” I’m sure he did, and I’m glad he did.

But, you know, it’s not any one thing. There’s a cumulative effect to getting good parts as a freelance actor, because you’re only as good as your last job, and you have to keep going out and getting them. Unless you’re part of the finance structure, by which I mean a bankable star, which I never was and never will be. That’s why actors who might not be such great actors but are bankable will have a great career. But mine is different. I’ve got to sell myself every time. And I embrace that gladly now. I didn’t always. There was a period of time where I thought, “This is irritating. I’ve done 70 movies. Why won’t you just give me the job or don’t give me the job?”

Then I ran across the following phrase: “There are two kinds of people in the world: the very, very wealthy and salesmen.” And I knew I was not in the former camp, so instead of looking at auditions as what I used to call “grovels.” I used to say, “Oh, I can’t play golf, I’ve got a 2 o’clock grovel.” I really did! And even when I said it, I’d say, “That’s not a really good attitude.” So then I ran across that phrase about the two kinds of people, it happened instantly. [Snaps fingers.] In the blink of an eye and the passing of a thought, I went from calling them “grovels” to looking at them as sales opportunities, as if I were selling wrenches. And I would go to a buyer and say, “These are my wrenches. They’re the very best wrenches for your job. Here they are, and here’s the price.” So I began to look at auditions like that, and I’ve never had a problem with it again.

Of course, I don’t audition for things I’m not interested in doing. I don’t have to do that anymore. And now I’ll still go and meet and… Actually, agents think you should not read, that you should just go and meet and discuss what you would do. And I don’t think so. I mean, it depends, but time and time again, I think that if you’re a good actor and you prepare well and you can audition well, you should. Because you may knock somebody else out of the box just by being better in the room.

You’ll recall that back in March we celebrated the twentieth anniversary of the release of My Cousin Vinny and featured interviews with the director, the writer, and several members of the cast. We had actually requested an interview with Mr. McGill, through his representation, to no avail.  Alas.

As we previously mentioned, we here at Abnormal Use spent May 2012 focusing on comic book covers featuring police line-ups.  Well, today is the first day of June, but we thought we’d share one more line-up cover with you, our dear readers. Above, you’ll find the cover of Justice Traps The Guilty #56, which appears to have been published way, way back in late 1953.  Just like last week’s cover, there is no barrier between the suspects in the line-up and the witness making the identification. This, to us, seems unsafe.

Davis Francis of the David Francis Law Firm, writing at his blog (which is called, simply, The Blog), discusses the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s new pool safety tips and even gives our earlier post on the matter a shout-out!

Since we very recently discussed the issue of vinyl records, we direct you to Roy Furchgott’s recent New York Times article, entitled “The Secrets of a High-Quality Vinyl Record.” Indeed.

Speaking of music, friend of the blog Matt Wake of The Huntsville Times recently published “9 destinations across the Southeast every music lover should visit.” A good list, though we, of course, would have included Harvest Records in Asheville, North Carolina and Horizon Records in Greenville, South Carolina.

“Is Blogging Dead?” asks Susan Cartier Liebel. Our response: Fear not, dear readers. We still live.

Whoa! The Charlotte Business Journal ran a brief profile of our North Carolina office this week. See here!

As we previously mentioned, we here at Abnormal Use are spending May 2012 focusing on comic book covers featuring police line-ups.  Behold! Above, you’ll find the cover to Mr. District Attorney #4, published way, way back in 1948. Okay, it doesn’t look like there is anything in between the purposed “Merchants of Death” and the witness identifying the suspect.  In fact, the suspect who has been identified appears to be glaring icily at the witness from atop some type of raised platform.  This does not bode well for the witness. Alas.

For some reason, yesterday, we here at Abnormal Use were thinking about Star Wars.  It’s a bittersweet topic for us, to be certain. Did you know that two years ago, we published excerpts from several state and federal court cases referencing Star Wars characters? And, of course, our magnum opus was our Star Wars April Fool’s Day gag in 2011. Take a look, if you like.

Speaking of nostalgia, did you know that our very first edition of Friday Links was published way, way back on January 8, 2010? Take a look at that puny first entry – which didn’t even feature an image, much less a legal themed comic book cover – by clicking here!

Have you heard of Tiger Lawyer? If not, it’s clearly something you need to investigate. With a name like that, how can you not?

Don’t forget! You can follow Abnormal Use on Twitter here and on Facebook here! Drop us a line!

As we previously mentioned, we here at Abnormal Use are spending May 2012 focusing on comic book covers featuring police line-ups.  Above, you’ll see the cover of Dick Tracy #89, published way, way back in 1955. There’s nothing particularly jarring about the line-up itself (and much of that Warren Court jurisprudence was years in the future, anyway).  However, what strikes us about this cover is the amateur logo on the side of the police video camera. “Police T.V.”? In stencil? Wow, police, you couldn’t outsource that? Sigh.

Whoa! If you can believe it, this is our 650th post here at Abnormal Use! That’s a lot! Does this mean that we are in the same realm as Action Comics, which published its 650th issue back in the halcyon days of 1990, or even Detective Comics, which published its own 650th issue back in the fateful year of 1992? Superman published its 650th issue in 2006, as did Batman. We’re in good company.

Our own bloggers Stuart Mauney and Rob Green were recently published in the ABA Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section’s Committee Spring 2012 Committee News newsletter. Their article is called “Emergency Response To Catastrophic Trucking Accidents.”  It can be found on page 3 of the PDF newsletter. Check it out. I mean, really, it’s got the word “catastrophic” right there in the title. You have to read it.

Once again, our pals at The Law and the Multiverse are offering some online CLEs. Not to be missed.

What? You’re not following us on Twitter? Quick, click here to remedy that!

As we mentioned last week, we here at Abnormal Use are spending May 2012 focusing on comic book covers featuring police line-ups. Last week, we featured Gotham Central #34, in which three costumed superheroes – who couldn’t look more different than each other – constituted the full line-up. Above, in Top 10 #4, published back in the halcyon days of 1999, we have the same problem. Written by the brilliant and mysterious Alan Moore, and illustrated by Gene Ha and Zander Cannon, this series is less familiar to us than others. But the constitutional issue remains!

Check out this tribute to friend of the blog Bill Childs, founder of the TortsProf blog, who is leaving academia for private practice. (Hat tip: Walter Olson).

We’ve read blogs for a long, long time. You know this. We’re huge blogging nerds. But in all of our years, we’ve never seen as cool a blog post title as one last week from the EvidenceProf Blog.  Behold: “Joss Whedon, The Avengers, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Eli Stone, Reluctant Heroes & The Rule Against Hearsay.” Indeed.

Mike Birbiglia fears the legal implications of his “Saved Mail” folder. So should we all.

It’s a brand new month, and to celebrate, we’re going to spend our Fridays in May focusing on comic book depictions of police line-ups.  So, above, you’ll see depicted the cover of Gotham Central #34, published not so long ago in 2005. We’re not criminal lawyers here, but isn’t it a bit suggestive to have the participants to a line-up look so dissimilar as here?  By this point in the criminal procedure process, there’s a witness who has already described to the police the nature of the suspect, and the police have apprehended a suspect they believe to be the perpetrator. In this line-up, however, we’ve got Kid Flash, Cyborg, and Wonder Girl, who taken together, couldn’t look more different than each other.  If the suspect was a young red haired male wearing a yellow outfit emblazoned with a bolt of lightning, who do you think the witness is going to pick? There’s got to be a constitutional issue here, right?

How did we miss this? Friend of the blog Jay Hornack a/ka/ The Panic Street Lawyer writes up his recent tour of the Bruce Springsteen exhibit at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. As we noted and detailed in this piece, a handful of our attorneys recently caught Springsteen’s latest tour in nearby Greensboro, North Carolina. As always, a fun outing.

Here is an interesting 1966 letter, written by Harper Lee, responding to a school board’s assertion that her To Kill A Mockingbird was “immoral.”  Back in July of 2010, our own Mills Gallivan, senior partner at the firm and occasional guest author here, offered his thoughts on Lee’s famed novel and the movie based on it in a piece called “Bluejays and Mockingbirds.”  We encourage you to revisit it.

Ryan S. at The Signal Watch wonders what the current generation of children know about pop culture of generations past.  A good read, that. This is not the first time he’s written on youth culture, either. If you have friends or children starting college this fall, you might direct them to his rather amusing blog post, “The League’s Guide for Incoming Freshman.”

In the last few weeks, we here at Gallivan, White, & Boyd, P.A. have had a few new attorneys join our offices in Greenville, Columbia, and Charlotte. Check out the details here!

Whoa.  We just realized that this is our 120th installment of Friday Links.  How about that?

We all remember Hank Ketcham’s “Dennis The Menace” comic strip.  It was so popular that the strips were collected and published in volumes, such as “Dennis The Menace Vs. Everybody,” depicted above and published way back in 1957.  We assume that with that title, Dennis has sued everybody, making him the Plaintiff.  Is he being cross examined on the book’s cover? We’d like to see that, although we’re a bit disappointed that Dennis has elected not to wear proper courtroom attire.  We wonder what Mr. Wilson would say about that. (Hat tip: Patrick Condon by way of Chuck Klosterman).

If you missed last night’s episode of NBC’s “Community,” you need to seek it out immediately, as it is a hilarious parody of NBC’s “Law & Order” franchise, complete with a send-up of all of that show’s legal cliches.  The best part: The characters stage a mock trial of sorts in which they make many frivolous objections (and then attempt to withdraw their own objectionable cross examination questions). Our favorite: When the character of Annie (played by Alison Brie) impressively begins to lay the foundation for a series of impeachment, her opponent exclaims: “Objection, she’s clearly ramping up to something!” The episode is entitled “Basic Lupine Urology,” a play on the name of “Law & Order” showrunner Dick Wolf.  For the time being, you can watch the episode on NBC’s official website here.

You may recall that in last week’s edition of “Friday Links,” we showed you the cover of Mr. District Attorney #63, published way back in 1958.  On it, the title character presents a suspect, “The Man in the Martian Suit,” to the police sergeant for fingerprinting.  Friend of the blog Kevin Underhill, who runs the seriously funny Lowering The Bar legal humor blog, couldn’t resist weighing on that comic book cover.  See his thoughts here.

Don’t forget! You can follow Abnormal Use on Twitter here and on Facebook here! Drop us a line!

Above, behold the cover of Mr. District Attorney #63, published way, way back in 1958.  Note that the cover story is entitled “The Man in the Martian Suit,” which suggests something about the events depicted upon the cover.  Our hero, the district attorney, presents himself and the presumably costumed crook to the police fingerprint desk.  Says the DA: “Check those fingerprints, sergeant! We’ll find out who this masquerading criminal is!”  Replies the sergeant: “But, Mr. D.A. . . . These prints are like nothing on this Earth!” You would think that the district attorney, in apprehending the “man in the Martian suit,” would have removed the Martian suit from the suspect before presenting him to the police sergeant for print.  Or, if the suit was, in fact, not a suit, but the exterior of an extra-terrestrial, you’d think the D.A. would have figured it out before this point in the criminal process, too.  Sigh.

Friend of the blog Max Kennerly, of the Litigation & Trial law blog has an interesting post: “How To Excel At The Basics As A Young Litigator.” Complete with Robert Caro references! You can follow Max on Twitter here.

We are disappointed to report that friend of the bog Stephen J. McConnell has announced his retirement – temporary, hopefully – from the famed Drug and Device Law blog.  You can read his last post – published past Monday – here.  Through our blogs, we’ve become pals with Steve, and he very recently participated in our collection of “My Cousin Vinny” reviews. Although our two blogs have previously quibbled on musical issues, we once joined forces to compile a huge list of songs about lawyers, judges, and attorneys, which was an immense amount of fun. We even quoted Steve in a prior edition of Friday Links on the occasion of the death of Clarence Clemons. In the mean time, Jim Beck and company will continue to provide sharp commentary on the drug and device beat.  We’ll miss you, Steve.

Don’t forget! You can follow Abnormal Use on Twitter here and on Facebook here! Drop us a line!

Okay, you’re not nerdy like us. You don’t know the DC Comics hero Booster Gold.  Well, he’s a super hero.  From the future.  He came back to our time – from the future – and uses all of his advanced technology to help us, the citizens of his past.  Above, you’ll find the cover of Booster Gold #14, published way back in the simple and easy days of 1987. Here’s our question: If, as the cover indicates, Booster Gold is a fugitive, sought by the police, why does the wanted poster say he is wanted for “treason and theft”?  I mean, isn’t it enough to just say he’s wanted for treason?   Do we really need to throw theft in there, too? That’s like saying: “Wanted for Treason and Jaywalking.”  Keep it simple, future police!

Andy Mergendahl at Lawyerist concludes that “Music on Vinyl is Better.”  This is one of the most important issues facing lawyers, actually.  We will not be left out of this debate. We will respond with a far more substantive post sometime in the future, but until then, read Andy’s piece.  We welcome your comments on this issue.

In this interesting post, our friends at The Law and The Multiverse blog answer this question:  “[W]hat would happen if a superhero was summoned for jury service in his/her secret identity, and the case turned out to be one where the character had been involved as a crimefighter and might even be expected to appear as a witness?”

By the way, since we’re talking about music, friend of the blog Matt Wake had his first piece published in Paste Magazine this week.  The title: “16 Musicians Discuss Their First Concert T-Shirts.”  We here at Abnormal Use would tell you about our first concert t-shirts, but unfortunately, they were all purchased during our embarrassing heavy metal stage.

Lo and behold! David Francis of The Blog respond to our prior post, “Deposing Siri,” in his own post, entitled “Suing Siri: Deceptive Advertising or Frivolous Lawsuit?“