Eric Rasmusen on Everyday Versus Fancy Law
Let me start with a couple of stories.
Story 1. I’m an economist, but I got a chance to be like a real lawyer in filing an amicus brief recently (Barnes v. Indiana– here’s our brief). We had only two weeks to organize, write, and file because of an oddity of the case (a petitition for the Indiana Supreme Case to rehear after an opinion that surprised everyone with its breadth). We had legal counsel, but pro bono, without paralegal help, and by email. It came down to the wire in writing and getting final approval from amici, so he suggested that I do the physical filing. I took the brief to Kinko’s around 9 p.m., but discovered they couldn’t do the binding by 11, and I needed to drive an hour get to the Indianapolis Statehouse and file by midnight. I went to my office instead, and did simple staple binding with green cardstock, which ran out so I used white cardstock for the back covers and made it to the Rotunda at 11:50. Alas, our counsel shortly got a notice that the back covers needed to be green too. But the Court Clerk was merciful, and allowed us to slip in replacement briefs without a formal motion.