Olde Barrister

  Government stupidity. Yeah, those two words are redundant. But here’s a TRUE story (name changed, of course).  Many years ago Puffuffnick owned property, went belly up in a spectacular way, both financially and personally, and passed away. His executor was left trying to clean up the mess.   One of his properties was needed for a local government project, and the local government offered a very good premium price for the property. Unfortunately Puffuffnick had some IRS problems – they had put a lien on his real estate and that had to be paid off as part of the closing.  Simple: ask the IRS for a payoff or their agreement to release the subject property on payment of all proceeds, right?  Nah.  For two months a bunch of lawyers tried to get the IRS to simply acknowledge the request. No luck. So Puffuffnick’s estate sued, in US District Court: Estate of Puffuffnick vs IRS.  The suit said, simply, “Judge: we own this property and the IRS has a li...

  Many many many years ago as a fairly young lawyer I represented a homeowner who was in litigation with the builder of her house.  She was, at best, a difficult client who thought she knew more than I did. (I learned a lot about when NOT to represent someone.!)  The client had hired her own “Expert” witness, an architect who, when I did my job and talked to him before the trial, told me his education was by "correspondence school" (now it's 'on line' education). He had not gone to college, either. No judge would have accepted him as an expert witness. But he was the witness my difficult client had, so I had to do my best.  In my favor was that the builder’s attorney was a ‘good old boy’ who had once built houses himself. He had not gone to law school but instead ‘read’ law which Virginia permits.  On the day of the trial, I call the witness. I ask about his job, how long he’s been at his job, what type of structures he works on, but I DID NOT ASK ABOUT HIS EDUC...