04/30/15

Street Legal

There’s a lot of overlap between the arts of lawyering and emceeing. Theater. Persuasion. Costuming. Words. You have to have stage presence. Look the part. Tell a convincing story. Talk a big game. Win the crowd.

As a practitioner of both, I probably haven’t done my job to make you hip to the vocabulary and black letter law.

So, I’m going to periodically include a feature that gives both some technical and everyday explanation of legal terms and concepts. Part street, part legal. Street Legal. See what I did there?

For instance, res ipsa loquitur. It’s a torts doctrine and latin phrase, which literally means “the thing speaks for itself.” It’s a way to hold someone liable for an accident or injury without direct proof that they did it. If the incident or item was completely in a person’s control and the damage done is of the kind only possible through negligence, then the person can be held liable even if there is no eye witness or even circumstantial evidence of her misconduct.

Like holding Erykah Badu responsible for Common’s Electric Circus.

It’s the only explanation. That’s on some res ipsa loquitur, son.

Street legal.

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