A Clever Picture in a Legal Proceeding is Worth a Thousand Words

Our “distinct” professions often have a lot in common and that recently came to life. I’m a trial lawyer and my girlfriend, Renée Kennison, works in marketing as a creative concept developer. Among other things, both of us shape and distill ideas for maximum impact. There is a science, but also an art, to doing this well. We often look over each other’s shoulders as we work. Two days ago, it was Renée's turn to play lawyer.

I had been struggling to think of a good way to make an argument in an arbitration. I represented a married couple who had been the victim of fraud committed by a time share resort. One of the many issues of the case is that the resort was obligated by Missouri law to disclose in writing at the time of the sale that the couple had five business days from the date of the sale to rescind the deal. Missouri law allows time share purchasers to do this by merely sending a letter to the resort. Missouri law requires the resort to make this written disclosure in a precise way. The written disclosure needs to be 18-point type and it needs to have precise wording. Here’s the law:

Instead of simply printing this language as-is on a piece of paper and handing it to the couple, the resort played cute. First of all, the timeshare closing involves 50 pages of documents, many of them filled with with fluff and others with legalese. It's comparable to attending a real estate closing for a residence. Second, the resort camouflaged the disclosure by sandwiching the disclosure between two irrelevant paragraphs of fluff. It also made the entire disclosure document 18-point bold type to hide the important part of the notice, the part that gives the purchasers 5 days to cancel the deal, no questions asked. Also, instead of putting the word “Notice” at the top of the sheet as a warning to pay special attention to the notice, the resort tucked the word “Notice” into the text as though it were a verb. I can’t disclose the actual facts of this case because the resort contract forces this case to be in confidential arbitration, but the resort printed something comparable to this as its “cancellation notice”:

DEAR NEW OWNERS!

WELCOME TO OUR JOYOUS FAMILY OF RESORT OWNERS. IT IS GREAT TO HAVE YOU IN OUR FAMILY AND WE HOPE YOU ARE SO HAPPY BEING PART OF OUR COMMUNITY. PLEASE REFER YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY TO US, SO THAT THEY CAN BUY TIMESHARES TOO.

NOTICE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO CANCEL THIS AGREEMENT WITHIN FIVE DAYS AFTER THE DATE OF THIS AGREEMENT. CANCELLATION MUST BE IN WRITING AND IF SENT BY MAIL, ADDRESSED TO THE OTHER CONTRACTING PARTY AS SHOWN ON THIS AGREEMENT, CANCELLATION WILL BE ACCOMPLISHED AT THE MOMENT THE LETTER IS POSTMARKED. IF SENT BY MAIL, THE LETTER MAY BE CERTIFIED WITH A RETURN RECEIPT REQUESTED. YOUR RIGHT TO CANCEL CANNOT BE WAIVED.

AGAIN, IT’S GREAT TO HAVE YOU IN OUR COMMUNITY. ENJOY HIKING, BIKING AND ALL OF THE OTHER AMENITIES. NEVER HESITATE TO REACH OUT TO US IF WE CAN BE OF ASSISTANCE TO YOU. YOU ARE IMPORTANT TO US. NOW GO ENJOY YOUR RESORT.

The resort is claiming that it followed the law simply because all the statutorily-required words appear in their written notice.   I was looking for a way to make a high-impact argument that the resort’s method of disclosing the 5-day right to cancel violated both the terms and the spirit of Missouri Law. After hearing my concern, Renée said, “What the resort has done is like creating a highway sign that hides the important warning in between two unimportant things. Perfect! Renée offered to create an image for me, and I used her image today in my closing argument:

I argued the case today. In a few weeks, we'll see whether my clients prevail.

Continue ReadingA Clever Picture in a Legal Proceeding is Worth a Thousand Words

Sit back and Enjoy this Burrito

No, you don't get to eat a burrito. You get to watch this dog finesse one down. And the dude next to the dog nails the supporting role.

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How to Become an Award-Winning Woke Researcher Overnight, and Why this is a Terrible Thing for Civil Rights in America.

How to become an award-winning Woke all-star author instantly, and why the success of this pranking-seeming project is a terrible thing for civil rights in America. Special Honor to physicist Alan Sokal for pioneering this approach to pouring sunshine on nonsense. James Lindsay, Peter Boghossian and Helen Pluckrose did the hard work to make this happen.

Continue ReadingHow to Become an Award-Winning Woke Researcher Overnight, and Why this is a Terrible Thing for Civil Rights in America.

Matt Taibbi: “The Left is Now the Right”

Once again, Taibbi is spot on. He ends his blistering critique of the "anti-racist" left with this:  "Ambrose Bierce once wrote there were “two instruments worse than a clarinet — two clarinets.” What would he say about authoritarian movements?"

Taibbi now publishes in a variety of places, but his writing "day job" is now on his own website here. I highly recommend subscribing, in that his writing is never tethered by party politics and is always analytically sharp and permeated with his creative wit.

The following is an excerpt from Taibbi's article, "The Left is Now the Right," where he puts a laser beam on the Smithsonian Museum racism, among other things:

Take the Smithsonian story. The museum became the latest institution to attempt to combat racism by pledging itself to “antiracism,” a quack sub-theology that in a self-clowning trick straight out of Catch-22 seeks to raise awareness about ignorant race stereotypes by reviving and amplifying them.

The National Museum of African American History and Culture created a graphic on “Aspects and Assumptions of White Culture” that declared the following white values: “the scientific method,” “rational, linear thinking,” “the nuclear family,” “children should have their own rooms,” “hard work is the key to success,” “be polite,” “written tradition,” and “self-reliance.” White food is “steak and potatoes; bland is best,” and in white justice, “intent counts.”

The astute observer will notice this graphic could equally have been written by white supremacist Richard Spencer or History of White People parodist Martin Mull. It seems impossible that no one at one of the country’s leading educational institutions noticed this messaging is ludicrously racist, not just to white people but to everyone (what is any person of color supposed to think when he or she reads that self-reliance, politeness, and “linear thinking” are white values?).

The exhibit was inspired by white corporate consultants with Education degrees like Judith Katz and White Fragility author Robin DiAngelo, who themselves echo the work of more consultants with Ed degrees like Glenn Singleton of Courageous Conversations. Per the New York Times, Courageous Conversations even teaches that “written communication over other forms” and “mechanical time” (i.e. clock time) are tools by which “whiteness undercuts Black kids.”

The notion that such bugbears as as time, data, and the written word are racist has caught fire across the United States in the last few weeks, igniting calls for an end to virtually every form of quantitative evaluation in hiring and admissions, including many that were designed specifically to combat racism.

Continue ReadingMatt Taibbi: “The Left is Now the Right”