shut up, windbags.

i love when a court tells the lawyers to shove it. case in point, we have the Wisconsin Supreme Court, in Thomsen et al. v. Cullen et al., 219 N.W.439, 440 (Wis. 1928), noting at the beginning of an opinion, before getting into the merits of the case:

"The case presented here includes over 1,000 pages of printed matter. There are nearly 400 pages of briefs. We regard the amount of printing presented in this case in this court as entirely unjustifiable and being an unwarranted expense to parties. It is not in accordance with the rule and we feel that it should not be passed without comment."

four hundred pages of briefs?! for one case?! i shudder to think about the lawyers who could stand to write that much, and i shudder to think about the judge who had to read it. i'm surprised the lawyers got away with just the admonition, instead of a full-fledged physical beating from the judge. i think that this case probably falls within the five or ten cases in which allowing the judge to physically castigate the lawyers would be most proper.

i should keep this quote by my computer at work. it would inspire me to keep my legal writing nice and concise.