That's a common concern, but it often is inaccurate. Money plays more of a role in trials, which typically depend on disputed facts, than in appeals. This looks like it was a straight legal issue, not something that would take a ton of money. I'm an appellate attorney; I've won cases in the Washington and US Supreme Courts, and I can attest that having an expensive lawyer is not going to make much of a difference appellate courts. It's more important to have someone who knows the law in the area of the appeal. How much she makes is very frequently an accident of fate -- who she met during school, who she impressed when she interviewed for work, what kind of work she wanted to do -- the normal things that drive careers. There are some extremely brilliant home-town lawyers out there who would not place second to anyone.
EVERY workplace is improved by a bit of light-heartedness, including courts. I've appeared in court many times, and things definitely work much more smoothly (and faster!) in courtrooms where the judges and court officials are open to a bit of humor. Think of your own jobs - don't you get more done, overall, in jobs when you can have a bit of fun in contrast to those where you are tied to a grumpy ball and chain?
I am a lawyer, and to put it succinctly, no, being a fan of the book would not be grounds for reversal. Judges cannot have financial interests in cases, and should not have personal entanglements with parties, but reading a party's book is not such a personal entanglement that would be ground for reversal.
You can still keep your Mac partition "pristine" with a virtual machine. Even better, if the Windows virtual machine gets infected, you can wipe it and "reinstall" a clean version in a matter of seconds as opposed to the hour or longer it would take you to wipe a "physical" copy from the hard drive and reinstall it (and your apps.)
Before I moved to California, I was with the Washington Attorney General's Office for 25 years. One of the agencies I represented was the Department of Corrections, so I handled habeas corpus and civil rights appeals, including death penalty cases. Those were a lot of fun (*ahem*). I also argued cases for other agencies I represented.
CART works extremely well. They are not camera based at all, and there is no need for gloves or other attachments. Have you ever seen a court reporter work? That is exactly what a CART reporter is -- the little keyboard that the court reporter uses is attached to a computer these days, and instead of printing out reams of keypunch paper, it now sends signals straight to a computer program that puts the words straight on the screen. The only thing you need to be concerned about is legal terminology and names. The CART reporter needs to know the legal terminology, of course, and should be given all the names of the parties and witnesses etc up front so that he or she can spell them right when they come up in the proceedings.
I was never a trial lawyer so I can't comment on juries. It had little to do with my hearing, and a lot on my skills - I discovered early on that I was utterly incompetent at asking questions. I was very good at writing legal briefs and then arguing them in front of judges. So I specialized in appeals.
My hearing (and voice) are good enough that I can communicate orally for the most part. I simply let the judges know before an argument that I cannot hear well, and that I may ask them to repeat themselves if I don't understand a question. The judges are usually old and hard of hearing themselves, so they understand! I never learned sign language, although some deaf attorneys use sign language interpreters in the courtroom. Some attorneys prefer not to use "terps" and instead use Computer-Aided Real-Time Captioning (CART). That works well in a trial situation, in particular, because the court stenographer is taking down the proceedings anyway, and since everything is all wired together anyway, that transcript can be sent directly to the deaf attorney's computer screen so he or she can follow along. There are other ways of helping hard-of-hearing attorneys as well.
If you live in the US, the Americans with Disabilities Act offers you quite a bit of protection. The ADA requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations for disabled persons both during job interviews and during employment, if the employee is otherwise qualified to do the work. I'm deaf and a lawyer, and in spite of my deafness I have argued and won cases in the Washington Supreme Court and Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. So don't think that a little thing like hearing will hold you back, ok? I don't know what your field is or how you are dealing with it, but unless you were a telephone receptionist there's probably ways to handle it. Feel free to PM me if you want to discuss it further.
If you read TFA, the way the "glasses" work has nothing to do with seeing. The manufacturer puts four microphones in each sidepiece of the glasses, tuned so that they focus more on sound to the front of the wearer instead of sound to the sides or the back.
I'm very hard of hearing (I had meningitis as little kid) and used hearing aids for years. Many of the behind-the-ear hearing aids have directional mikes already. I'm not sure how much this gadget would help; perhaps with the multiple mikes it could offer more signals to play with.
Not funny, son. I know the woman who filed the complaint about WoW's refusal to permit a GLBT guild. It is really too bad that you think that your "right" to make fun of gays and lesbians is worth more than their dignity.
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That's a common concern, but it often is inaccurate. Money plays more of a role in trials, which typically depend on disputed facts, than in appeals. This looks like it was a straight legal issue, not something that would take a ton of money. I'm an appellate attorney; I've won cases in the Washington and US Supreme Courts, and I can attest that having an expensive lawyer is not going to make much of a difference appellate courts. It's more important to have someone who knows the law in the area of the appeal. How much she makes is very frequently an accident of fate -- who she met during school, who she impressed when she interviewed for work, what kind of work she wanted to do -- the normal things that drive careers. There are some extremely brilliant home-town lawyers out there who would not place second to anyone.
EVERY workplace is improved by a bit of light-heartedness, including courts. I've appeared in court many times, and things definitely work much more smoothly (and faster!) in courtrooms where the judges and court officials are open to a bit of humor. Think of your own jobs - don't you get more done, overall, in jobs when you can have a bit of fun in contrast to those where you are tied to a grumpy ball and chain?
I am a lawyer, and to put it succinctly, no, being a fan of the book would not be grounds for reversal. Judges cannot have financial interests in cases, and should not have personal entanglements with parties, but reading a party's book is not such a personal entanglement that would be ground for reversal.
You can still keep your Mac partition "pristine" with a virtual machine. Even better, if the Windows virtual machine gets infected, you can wipe it and "reinstall" a clean version in a matter of seconds as opposed to the hour or longer it would take you to wipe a "physical" copy from the hard drive and reinstall it (and your apps.)
CART works extremely well. They are not camera based at all, and there is no need for gloves or other attachments. Have you ever seen a court reporter work? That is exactly what a CART reporter is -- the little keyboard that the court reporter uses is attached to a computer these days, and instead of printing out reams of keypunch paper, it now sends signals straight to a computer program that puts the words straight on the screen. The only thing you need to be concerned about is legal terminology and names. The CART reporter needs to know the legal terminology, of course, and should be given all the names of the parties and witnesses etc up front so that he or she can spell them right when they come up in the proceedings.
My hearing (and voice) are good enough that I can communicate orally for the most part. I simply let the judges know before an argument that I cannot hear well, and that I may ask them to repeat themselves if I don't understand a question. The judges are usually old and hard of hearing themselves, so they understand! I never learned sign language, although some deaf attorneys use sign language interpreters in the courtroom. Some attorneys prefer not to use "terps" and instead use Computer-Aided Real-Time Captioning (CART). That works well in a trial situation, in particular, because the court stenographer is taking down the proceedings anyway, and since everything is all wired together anyway, that transcript can be sent directly to the deaf attorney's computer screen so he or she can follow along. There are other ways of helping hard-of-hearing attorneys as well.
If you live in the US, the Americans with Disabilities Act offers you quite a bit of protection. The ADA requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations for disabled persons both during job interviews and during employment, if the employee is otherwise qualified to do the work. I'm deaf and a lawyer, and in spite of my deafness I have argued and won cases in the Washington Supreme Court and Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. So don't think that a little thing like hearing will hold you back, ok? I don't know what your field is or how you are dealing with it, but unless you were a telephone receptionist there's probably ways to handle it. Feel free to PM me if you want to discuss it further.
If you read TFA, the way the "glasses" work has nothing to do with seeing. The manufacturer puts four microphones in each sidepiece of the glasses, tuned so that they focus more on sound to the front of the wearer instead of sound to the sides or the back. I'm very hard of hearing (I had meningitis as little kid) and used hearing aids for years. Many of the behind-the-ear hearing aids have directional mikes already. I'm not sure how much this gadget would help; perhaps with the multiple mikes it could offer more signals to play with.
Not funny, son. I know the woman who filed the complaint about WoW's refusal to permit a GLBT guild. It is really too bad that you think that your "right" to make fun of gays and lesbians is worth more than their dignity.