Lawyers Ordered to Play RPS to Settle Dispute

Rent-to-Pwn writes "After the lawyers involved couldn't settle even the most basic disputes without court intervention, a federal judge ordered the two lawyers to play one (1) game of rock, paper, scissors to settle the dispute. Being a federal case, in theory, it could become precedent for similar, unimportant decisions. Of course, there's no mention of what the two lawyers are supposed to do in case of a tie ..."

Comments

Play Paper!

[catch23]

Since there's still time before June 30 (the date of the RPS game), I'd play paper. As world rps so eloquently describes it:

Paper is often considered the most subtle throw. There is nothing aggressive about the limp documents that move through our desks and offices. Even the gesture used to represent paper is peaceful - an open palm like that used in a salute or handshake. Historically, an open palm has been a sign of friendship and peace because an open hand cannot hold a weapon. Some players, who unconsciously perceive Paper as weak or a sign of surrender, will shy away from using it entirely or drop it from their game when they are falling behind. On the other hand, Paper also connects with a player's perceptions about writing. There is a quiet power in the printed word. It has the ability to lay off thousands of employees, declare war against nations, spread scandal or confess love. Paper, in short, has power over masses. The fate of the entire world is determined by print. As such, some players perceive Paper as a subtle attack, the victory of modern culture over barbarism. Such players may use Paper to assert their superiority and dignity.

Re:probably as fair than most legal proceedings

[xwipeoutx]

The game is to settle a dispute between the location to hold a deposition.

The funny thing...FTA:

counsel shall convene at a neutral site agreeable to both parties. If counsel cannot agree on a neutral site, they shall meet on the front steps of the Sam M. Gibbons U.S. Courthouse, 801 North Florida Ave., Tampa, Florida 33602.

Rock Paper Scissors Spock Lizard

[PayPaI]

Rock Paper Scissors Spock Lizard

The law for kids

[Tell999]

It makes me sad to learn about a judge who chicken out insted of telling those in question to grow up. Is it all down to fear of offending someones feelings...

Re:Games are patentable

[Kadin2048]

To be fair, that patent was eventually shot down, or so I heard. Basically the USPTO invalidated all of its claims, and then the holder just declined to pay the fees and it expired.

Still, whatever examiner passed it ought to be punished in some sort of humiliating way.

I have heard from a friend who is starting work as a patent examiner that they have totally revamped their recruitment and training programs. Now, instead of going through nominal 'welcome aboard' training and being shoved out onto the floor and told to start processing patents, there's like 8 or 9 months of training, following which you're basically an apprentice to somebody more senior (where they have to approve/rubberstamp your work) for a while.

There still seems to be some obvious issues, like the number of patents you process per day/week influences your promotions, so that there's an indirect reward for pushing more paper, but they do seem to be making some progress.

Still, I wouldn't mind seeing them drag out a Dunce cap for patents like that.

RPS25

[Darth Paul]

I'd like to see 'em playing RPS25. That'll be a great way to rake in those legal fees :)

See, Saddam did it - he was way ahead of his time!

This is nothing

[Raul654]

Rock-paper-scissors was used in this case to determine which lawyer could choose the location for the deposition. A minor aspect of a minor part of the trial.

On the other hand, in New York City courts determine which judge is assigned to the case (a CONSIERABLY more important question) are by spinning a wooden wheel with all the judges' names on it. (I'm sorry I don't have a citation)

Re:Geez... what a precedent

[Adhemar]

The World RPS Society writes (in an update to this story):

Pro Player Mr. C. Urbanus quickly offered his consulting series to one of the lawyers and received the following response from one of them: Fortunately, we, the attorneys have worked out our differences by agreement. We will not have to resort to combat by RPS. Thanks again and best of luck.

Sidenote: "Combat" is that what lawyers are calling "conflict resolution" these days??

Personally, I was more surprised by the existance of pro RPS players than by the use of the word combat in legal conflict resolution.

Re:Damn...

[Anonymous Coward]

To CWRUisTakingMyMoney: As an EECS graduate, I have to say, if you're not pre-med or BME, you're not going to the top-tier school you thought you were, and you won't realize it until you're in your junior or senior year and begin to wonder where the top-level electives are. That could just be EECS though. The interesting thing is the one thing that CWRU had going for it is that it DIDN'T take your money - the scholarships were plentiful which is why people tended to choose it over Carnegie Mellon.

If I had one piece of advice for you it would be to take a serious look at what is getting taught in your classes and also what is getting taught in classes at, say, MIT or CMU (provided you're EECS). Try to fill in the holes yourself - like teaching yourself real, DRC/LVS, tool-driven layout beyond the colored pencils approach of EECS 315. Saab's a great guy and you really feel like you're learning a lot in that class but a lab in which you actually do layout for the designs you create in 301 would be a godsend. Layout isn't always considered that important since it isn't generally part of the circuit designer's job description, but that's just one example...another being computer architecture. There are only 2 CA courses available, and the graduate one is a joke from what I've seen - no real projects, just paper tests. Then there's signal processing (OK) and communications (one course, taught by an adjunct, last time I checked). The computer science curriculum is perhaps a bit better off as they seem to be acquiring plenty of new faculty - however, with new faculty comes a period where none of the students are exactly sure what a class taught by one of them is going to be teaching.

I'm not so full of myself as to think I have all the answers, but if you do want to tell me why I'm wrong my email's lam6mzo02@sneakemail.com.

Re:Geez... what a precedent

[Anonymous Coward]

The correct spelling of the words involved has nothing to do with comprehension of the topic at hand. Spelling is 100% memorization of letter placement in words, or comprehension of the structures of words and having good experience with placing the letters. The actual topics related to those words has nothing to do with the words themselves. Some people are much better then others at spelling. Using your theory, spelling bee champions would have the best rounded knowledge of all subjects and that is not the case. Just like a person that can recite in order all of the previous US presidents and cabinet members like a lot of history classes require. Yes, that is a lot to remember but knowing the order does not mean you know anything about those presidents or what they did or did not accomplish. In fact, spending time learning just that information is pretty much useless.

Judging someones overall knowledge on a specific subject by just spelling and grammar is not a fair assessment. Spelling and grammar are subjects and areas of expertise just like any other subject. People tend to use language as a general gauge of knowledge because it is a common ground between everyone. A rocket scientist and a brain surgeon have no way to characterize each other or gauge the relative experience of the other in their respective fields. Language is the only thing common to both of them and they may unfairly use language as the indicator of that knowledge.