As you faithful readers recall, we annually present a handful of our favorite Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest winners.             For you new readers, the Bulwer-Lytton Contest is named after novelist Edward George Earl Bulwer-Lytton who wrote many famous novels including “Paul Gifford” which started with the immortal words, “It was a dark and stormy night.” Supposedly that’s often-parodied bad writing (although it is better than anything I ever do).             The Contest rewards rookie writers composing intentionally bad opening sentences to imaginary novels. Pretty clever [...]

            Many of us belong to or intend to join exercise facilities like fitness clubs. Most clubs if not all require new members to sign a Release of Liability sometimes known as a Release of Claims before joining. Does that protect the club should you have an injury and sue? Glad you asked. Trip and Fall in the Sauna             On May 1, 2017, Mansi Joshi entered the sauna at City Sports Club in San Jose owned by Fitness International (Fitness). When she closed the [...]

            Press the Law Review snooze button. We are breaking from our usual boring legalese-ridden guaranteed-to-put-anyone-to-sleep law review columns. Yep, it’s time for our real life, verbatim, Courtroom Bloopers. Most of these come from one of my Hastings, rather California University School of Law, San Francisco, professor’s book; Disorderly Conduct – Verbatim Excerpts from Actual Court Cases. Enjoy. *** “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 [...]