• Am I a Good Lawyer? Beyond a reasonable doubt!
• As a female shopper exited a New York convenience store, a man grabbed her purse and ran. The clerk called 911 immediately, and the woman was able to give them a detailed description of the snatcher. Within minutes, the police apprehended the snatcher. They put him in the car and drove back to the store. The thief was then taken out of the car and told to stand there for a positive ID. To which he replied, "Yes, officer, that's her. That's the lady I stole the purse from."
• At the height of a political corruption trial, the prosecuting attorney attacked a witness. "Isn't it true," he bellowed, "that you accepted five thousand dollars to compromise this case?" The witness stared out the window, as though he hadn't hear the question.
  "Isn't it true that you accepted five thousand dollars to compromise this case?" the lawyer repeated. The witness still did not respond.
  Finally, the judge leaned over and said, "Sir, please answer the question."
  "Oh," the startled witness said, "I thought he was talking to you."
• The Baltimore Police Department, famous for its superior K-9 unit, was somewhat taken aback by a recent incident. Returning home from work, a woman was shocked to find her house ransacked and burglarized. She telephoned the police at once and reported the crime.
  The police dispatcher broadcast the call on all channels, and a K-9 officer patrolling nearby was the first on the scene. As he approached the house with his dog on a leash, the woman ran out on the porch,clapped a hand to her head and moaned, "I come home from work to find all my possessions stolen, I call the police for help - and what do they do? They send me a blind policeman!" (from Readers Digest)
• Council for the defense was prepared to prove:
  1) He shot in self defense,
  2) The police did it and stuck the gun in his hand, and
  3) He was 100 miles away when it happened.
• Defense attorney Tom Haney challenged Dahl's credibility, recounting what he said was a litany of lies by Dahl when he worked for Petroleum Energy.
  "I don't know how many times you've lied," Haney said. "You'd rather lie you way out of a situation rather than face the truth."
  "Not necessarily," Dahl said. "It depends on the situation."
  (from an article in the Wichita Eagle-Beacon ca 1990)
• English Law prohibits a man from marrying his mother-in-law.
  This is our idea of useless legislation.
• Following the path of least resistance is what makes rivers and men crooked.
• Good Lawyering - it's all in the writs!
• Good lawyers know the law,
  Great lawyers know the judge.
• A good private eye is a guy who pries harder.
• Gun control is being able to hit your target.
• He who laughs last has the best lawyer.
• Hell hath no fury like the lawyer of a woman scorned.
• How does an attorney sleep? First he lies on one side, then he lies on the other.
• "I find it hard to believe that you murdered that crippled old man for fifty cents," the outraged judge told the mugger.
  The mugger shrugged. "Fifty cents here, fifty cents there - it all adds up."
• I'm a Lawyer, of course I'm appealing!
• July 1978 - Employees at a bank in Sherman Oaks, CA thought they had outwitted a robber by refusing to handle his suspicious package. The bandit sprinted outside to dump his parcel. A man, standing outside the bank, saw the thief escaping and chased him. He tackled the robber and returned the package, which contained tear gas timed to explode in two minutes, to the bank. It took 30 minutes to clear the air.
• Jury: Twelve people who determine which client has the better attorney.
• Just remember: when you go to court, you are trusting your fate to twelve people that weren't smart enough to get out of jury duty!
• The large print giveth and the small print taketh away.
• The Law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich, as well as the poor, to sleep under the bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread. (Anatole France )
• Law: The only game where the best players get to sit on the bench.
• Lawyer: individual whose principal role is to protect his clients from other members of his profession.
• A lawyer is a person who writes a 10,000-word document and calls it a "brief." (Franz Kafka)
• Lawyers aren't opinionated. They're just always right.
• Lawyers make great husbands. They're used to saying "Yes, Your Honor" and they know how to plead!
• Make crime pay. Become a Lawyer.
• A man walked into a Louisiana Circle-K, put a $20 bill on the counter, and asked for change. When the clerk opened the cash drawer, the man pulled a gun and asked for or all the cash in the register, which the clerk promptly provided. The man took the cash from the clerk and fled, leaving the $20 bill on the counter. The total amount of cash he got from the drawer...$15. (If someone points a gun at you and gives you money, is a crime committed?)
• Mugger to victim: "Perhaps it'll make you feel better to know that the technicality that got my previous conviction overturned is there to protect your rights...
• On their way to a justice of the peace to get married, a couple has a fatal car accident. The couple is sitting outside heaven's gate waiting on St. Peter. While waiting, they wonder if they could possibly get married in Heaven. St. Peter finally shows up and they ask him.
  St. Peter says, "I don't know, this is the first time anyone has ever asked. Let me go find out," and he leaves.
  The couple sits for a couple of months and begins to wonder if they really should get married in Heaven, what with the eternal aspect of it and all.
  "What if it doesn't work out?" they wonder. "Are we stuck together forever?"
  St. Peter returns after yet another month, looking somewhat bedraggled.
  "Yes," he informs the couple, " You can get married in Heaven."
  "Great," says the couple, "but what if things don't work out? Could we also get a divorce in Heaven?"
  St. Peter, red-faced, slams his clipboard onto the ground.
  "What's wrong?" exclaims the frightened couple.
  "Come on!" St. Peter exclaims, "It took me three months to find a priest up here! Do you have any idea how long it's going to take for me to find a lawyer!?"
• Pardon My Appearance...my civil suit is at the dry cleaners.
• Police in Los Angeles had good luck with a robbery suspect who just couldn't control himself during a lineup. When detectives asked each man in the lineup to repeat the words: "Give me all your money or I'll shoot," the man shouted, "That's not what I said!"
• Old lawyers never die, they just lose their appeal.
• Old lawyers never die, they just lose their briefs.
• A police recruit was asked during the exam, "What would you do if you had to arrest your own mother?"
  The recruit responded, "Call for backup."
• The real reason that we can't have the Ten Commandments in a Courthouse:
  You cannot post "Thou Shalt Not Steal," "Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery" and "Thou Shall Not Lie" in a building full of lawyers, judges and politicians - it creates a hostile work environment!
• They say lawyers are sharks...but sometimes a shark is exactly what you need!
• The trouble with the legal profession is that 99% of its members give the rest a bad name.
• A truck driver was heading down the highway when he saw a priest at the side of the road. Feeling it was his duty, he stopped to give the priest a ride. A short time later, he saw a lawyer with a briefcase on the side of the road and aimed his truck at him. At the last second, he thought of the priest with him and realized he couldn't run over the lawyer, so he swerved, but he heard a thump anyway. Looking back as he drove on, he didn't see anything.
  He began to apologize for his behavior to the priest. "I'm sorry, Father. I barely missed that lawyer at the side of the road."
  But the priest said, "Don't worry, son. I got him with my door."
• We have a criminal jury system which is superior to any in the world;
  and its efficiency is only marred by the difficulty of finding twelve men every day who don't know anything and can't read. (Mark Twain)
• What do attorneys use for birth control?
  Their personalities.
• What do you call skydiving lawyers?
  Skeet.
• When you go into court you are putting your fate into the hands of twelve people who weren't smart enough to get out of jury duty. (Norm Crosby)
• Where there's a will...there's a fee!
• Why do they put pictures of criminals in the Post Office? What are we supposed to do - write to them? Why don't they put the pictures on postage stamps so mailmen can look for them while they deliver the mail? Or better yet, arrest them while they are taking their pictures!
• Why do they sterilize the needle for lethal injections?
• You win some and you lose some, but you get paid for all of them.

Police Come-Backs

• If you run, you'll only go to jail tired.
• Can you run faster than 1,200 feet per second? Because that's the average speed of a 9 mm bullet fired from my gun.
• So you don't know how fast you were going. I guess that means I can write anything I want on the ticket?
• Take your hands off the car again and I'll make your birth certificate a worthless document.
• Warning! You want a warning? O.K., I'm warning you not to do that again or I'll give you another ticket.
• The answer to this last question will determine whether you are drunk or not. Was Mickey Mouse a cat or a dog?
• Yeah, we have a quota. Two more tickets and my wife gets a toaster oven.
• Just how big were those two beers?
• No sir, we don't have quotas anymore. We used to have quotas, but now we're allowed to write as many tickets as we want.
• I'm glad to hear the Chief of Police is a close personal friend of yours. At least you know someone who can post your bail.

You know you need a new Lawyer when...

• The prosecutor sees your lawyer in the hall, and they high-five each other.
• During your initial consultation he tries to sell you Amway.
• He tells you that his last good case was a Budweiser.
• He picks the jury by playing duck-duck-goose.
• He asks a hostile witness to "pull my finger."
• During the trial you catch him playing his Gameboy.
• Every few minutes he yells, "I call Jack Daniels to the stand!" and proceeds to drink a shot.
• He gives juror No. 4 the finger.
• Just before he says "Your Honor," he makes those little quotation marks in the air with his fingers.
• Whenever his objection is overruled, he tells the judge, "Whatever."
• He giggles every time he hears the word 'briefs.'
• He keeps citing the legal case of Godzilla v. Mothra.
• He places a large 'No Refunds' sign on the defense table.
• He begins closing arguments with, "As Ally McBeal once said..."

Excerpts from actual court proceedings

(This article appeared in the Salt Lake City Tribune about a year ago.)

• Was that the SAME nose you broke as a child?
• Now, doctor, isn't it true that when a person dies in his sleep, in most cases he just passes quietly away and doesn't know anything about it until the next morning?
• Question:  What happened then?
  Answer:  He told me, he says, "I have to kill you because you can identify me."
  Question: Did he kill you?
• Was it YOU or your brother that was killed in the war?
• The youngest son, the 20 year old, how old is he?
• Were you alone...or by yourself?
• How long have you been a French Canadian?
• Do you have children, or anything of the kind?
• Question: Now, Mrs. Johnson, how was you first marriage terminated?
  Answer: By death.
  Question: And by whose death was it terminated?
• Were you present in court this morning when you were sworn in?
• Question: I show you exhibit 3 and ask you if you recognize the picture.
  Answer: Yes, that's me.
  Question: Were you present when that picture was taken?
• Question:  Do you know how far pregnant you are now?
  Answer:  I'll be 3 months on November 8.
  Question:  Apparently, then, the date of conception was August 8.
  Answer:  Yes.
  Question:  What were you doing at that time?
• Question: She had three children, right? Answer: Yes.
  Question:  How many were boys? Answer:  None.
  Question:  Were there any girls?
• You don't know what it was, and you don't know what it looked like, but can you describe it?
• Question: You say that the stairs went down to the basement, but did they go up also?
• Question: Have you lived in this town all your life?
  Answer: Not yet.
• Question: Do you recall the time that you examined the body of Mr. Smith?
  Answer: The autopsy started about 8:30 p.m.
  Question: And Mr. Smith was dead at the time, is that correct?
  Answer: No, he was sitting on the table wondering why I was doing an autopsy!!