New look to JDDuncanLaw.com

It's a new week, and a new look for my main website, jdduncanlaw.com.  You get the same great content with an updated look and (finally) some color.  Let's not get crazy, there's only a little color.  Still, I'm happy with the results and am excited to be doing something new.

As an added change, my new hosting provider (squarespace) gives me a better and easier way to blog and receive comments from my readers.  What does this mean for Esquire by Day?  To be honest, I'm not sure.  I have enjoyed the sort of second identity that this blog gives me, so I won't say it will be abandoned completely.  I plan to write more often to my main site, however, and maybe I'll come back here and maybe I will transfer everything else over.

Until I make up my mind, take a look at the new site and please leave comments!  I don't care if you say nothing more than "it's great" or "this is the worst place on the internet."  Let's start the dialogue I always wanted to start.

Until next time,

JD

John D. Duncan is president of J.D. Duncan, PC, founding partner of Prater, Duncan & Craig, LLC in Newnan, Georgia, and is Esquire by Day.  You can find him at www.jdduncanlaw.com, or follow him on twitter and Facebook.

Speeding in Georgia is now up!

I love handling speeding tickets.  Maybe it's because I got my fair share when I was younger, maybe it's because I appreciate fast cars, and maybe it's because not many lawyers even want to handle these cases.  In any event, I like representing clients for speeding as well as advising prospective clients.

With that being said, I have created a new website, Speeding In Georgia, which is geared solely toward handling and advising individuals on speeding tickets.  This site is unique in that its purpose is not to persuade folks to hire me full-time, but to provide a way to get fast legal advice without breaking the bank.  I have a "shop" on the site that people can pay for fifteen minutes of my time and get their speeding ticket questions answered.  It is my hope that people will find this site and use it to decide whether they need to hire counsel or can handle the case in some other way.

Take a look and let me know what you think.  And of course, use the service if you need a speeding question answered.

Best,

JD

John D. Duncan is president of J.D. Duncan, PC, founding partner of Prater, Duncan & Craig, LLC in Newnan, Georgia, and is Esquire by Day.  You can find him at www.jdduncanlaw.com, or follow him on twitter and Facebook.

Booze in the Office?

I love AMC's Mad Men.  The wife and I are finishing up the fifth season on Netflix (we typically run behind on our stories) and I am really getting a kick out of Don's newfound hunger for excellence.  Because I work every day in an office setting, I find myself furnishing my space after Sterling Cooper Draper Price's decor as best I can, which of course includes a bottle of good booze.

Man, those folks can drink!  Watch any episode and you will see that the first thing they do is poor a glass of whisky or vodka before meetings in each other's offices.  And this seems to be at all hours of the day.  Bourbon in Don's office, vodka in Roger's, and cognac or gin in Lane's.  The liquor itself tells a little about each character, but their always "neat" pours of booze convince me that there was never an edge to take off.

Fast forward to today.  Sure, Mad Men is a tv show that celebrates perhaps the fringes of Madison Avenue, but the drinking all seems fairly common and well-received.  If I met with a client today and offered a glass of Scotch (Laphroaig Triple Wood at present) I imagine the result would not be landing the Jaguar campaign.  More likely, I would be refused, maybe not hired at all, and at best my client would always assume I'm sitting at my desk with a glass, hacking up their case.  Why is it that our American society has become so much more liberated in the past fifty years, yet so much less intolerant to imbibing in the liquors of the world?

Don't get me wrong; I am not advocating working intoxicated.  I practice the law, and my clients deserve me at my best.  I just want to point out how things have changed in the US so that anyone not at a bar that offers a drink is looked down upon like an alcoholic.  I suppose many on the show would be considered alcoholics by today's standards, but I still think it's odd.

I do have a bottle of Scotch in my office, and it rarely sees the light of day.  Just having the bottle and glasses on my bookshelf gets the occasional comment.  I don't drink during the day, and I don't drink with clients.  It just seems strange to me that what once was such habit has become taboo in the business community (at least my business community).  Weird.

Slainte'

JD


John D. Duncan is president of J.D. Duncan, PC, founding partner of Prater, Duncan & Craig, LLC in Newnan, Georgia, and is Esquire by Day.  You can find him at www.jdduncanlaw.com, or follow him on twitter and Facebook.

Why we don't make copies of your Last Will and Testament

Estate planning and writing wills have been things I enjoy ever since my first doctrinal class in law school.  I don't get to write wills often enough, but when I get a client that needs one I am more than happy to put together a custom plan to fit his or her needs.

The one thing that clients are always surprised about, however, is that we don't make copies of our clients' wills prior to or after execution.  This is not an issue with saving paper; no, this is a principled decision based on our knowledge and expertise.  Even though Professor Van Detta would hate me to use example to explain why, I think this case makes better sense by contrasting two different situations.

Scenario 1:  You get your will written to your liking and you go to your lawyer's office to execute it.  Assuming all goes well at execution, you leave the office with a single original copy of your will.  At least in Georgia, you can take your will to your probate court for safe keeping, or you can put it anywhere else you know things will be safe.  As the years go by, maybe you make little scribbles on your will and maybe you don't, but either way when it comes time to probate the will the judge will understand your intentions because there is no contradictory document.  Done, and all goes as you might want it to.

Scenario 2:  Once your will is written properly, your lawyer either makes multiple originals to execute or after execution, he makes multiple copies to give out to your loved ones.  Don't get me started on why you should never execute multiple wills in the first place...  So instead of leaving with one single original copy, you may leave with three or five.  Because you have multiple copies, human nature sets in and you take less care to put one away for safety.  At some point maybe you decide to change your will, so you make scribbles on the one that you kept.  Maybe you can't find your copy, so you call your daughter and ask for hers so that you can make changes.  Big problem, however, is that if you died right then, the probate court would have to sift through contradictory versions of your will.  And based on which changes were made, your beneficiaries now have a legal battle on their hands that you could have avoided.  And the typical owner of a will wants to make some change in their lifetime.

I am not in the business of refusing to perform tasks requested by my clients, but making copies of their will is something I do not do for this reason.  I have seen all too often that, after a person dies, their family has to deal with litigation because there were multiple wills with different language.  While you might not care too much (because you'd be dead) you should at least consider the heirs you love and want to provide for.  Why create a hassle when it could be so easily avoided?  So when clients ask me for copies of their will, I tell them no, recount these stories, and let them make their own decision when they leave.

Best,

JD

John D. Duncan is president of J.D. Duncan, PC, founding partner of Prater, Duncan & Craig, LLC in Newnan, Georgia, and is Esquire by Day.  You can find him at www.jdduncanlaw.com, or follow him on twitter and Facebook.

Perry, You Will Be Missed

As the name implies, Esquire by Day is not only about legal problems or observations.  Today, instead of practicing law I spent the day with my family to mourn the passing of our dachshund-chihuahua pup Perry.  Perry had been battling a serious bone disease and he took his last breath this morning.

We have enjoyed having Perry in our life since 2006, when we found him at a rescue agency only four months old.  He was not our only dog, but he was a loved member of our family.  Perry was always ready to defend his house and family, and had the best time taking walks with the pack.  He would sprint around the house for no reason at all, but most importantly he was kind to our daughter.  When our other animals would run from little Say, Perry would sit next to our girl and let her pet him as long as she wanted.  He was a kind and loving little pup and we will all miss him very much.

I don't know if dogs go to heaven, but I hope to see you again, little buddy.

We love you Perry!

- Dad and the Pack

A Traveling Journal: Visiting Kingsland, Georgia

I have always loved riding in the car.  I can thank my Dad for that, because he never passed up a road trip, and the fact that my grandparents lived about a four hour drive away when I was a kid, so we were always in the car.  It was great, then, when a client recently asked me about a case in Kingsland, Georgia they needed handling.  I admit that I had to search for it to figure out where it was, but once I noticed how close it was to the Atlantic Coast and Fernandina Beach, I had to take it.  Sure, a five-hour trip would not make a cost-effective practice were I to handle cases there regularly, but then again there's something about the sea air that just speaks to me.

So I happily took the case and brought the family over with me to enjoy some time away from home before (and after) I had court.  While all the personal stuff is not really relevant here, I will say that I had my fill of oysters and shrimp before returning inland.

What I really want to talk about, however, is how much fun I have visiting new courthouses and meeting new judges and lawyers.  I will always feel at home in Coweta and the surrounding areas, but it's nice to stretch my legs and meet some new faces every now and then.  I also love learning the way things get done in different court settings.

In Kingsland, for example, I checked in with who I assume was the clerk of court, and she promptly gave me the city's entire file for my client, including her confiscated license.  What a breath of fresh air to have court personnel actually trust lawyers as fellow officers of the court!  She then let me know that I could have a seat at the front of the courtroom and wait for the judge to call me back for our conference.  Great! So without having made an appointment, I was able to get some individual face-time with the judge.  All in all it was quite accommodating.

And I can't forget just how nice the facility was.  Sure, Kingsland is not massive, so it does not need a huge courthouse.  The space was brand new, though, with plenty of room for everything they needed to do, and the wainscoting gave the place a distinctive coastal vibe.

It's too bad I worked out a great deal for my client that keeps me from having to go back on her case; Kingsland was great and I hope I get the chance to practice down there again.  And for any lawyers that practice down there that might be reading this, I'm happy to work out some kind of a practice swap for a week or two if and when you just get too much sea air to handle!  Gary Bacon, this means you...

Cheers,

JD


John D. Duncan is president of J.D. Duncan, PC, founding partner of Prater, Duncan & Craig, LLC in Newnan, Georgia, and is Esquire by Day.  You can find him at www.jdduncanlaw.com, or follow him on twitter and Facebook.

Happy Law Day 2013!

What is Law Day, you might ask?  Well, it started back on May 1, 1958 when President Eisenhower created Law Day (possibly as a reaction to May Day, but I won't get into that here).  Since 1958, bar associations across the country have used Law Day as an education tool to inform the public of just how great our legal system can be.

Unfortunately, I was stuck in court rather than a classroom teaching kids about the Bill of Rights or the 14th Amendment.  Still, today is a nice time to reflect on what has been created and cared for in the United States that tyranny and physical might is met with the rule of law.

President Obama issued a proclamation on the subject, too.


Whether you exercise your right to remain silent, enter into contract, or speak against our very government today, take some time to enjoy Law Day!

Best,

JD


John D. Duncan is president of J.D. Duncan, PC, founding partner of Prater, Duncan & Craig, LLC in Newnan, Georgia, and is Esquire by Day.  You can find him at www.jdduncanlaw.com, or follow him on twitter and Facebook.

Flow Charts with Grafio

Wow, have I been busy the past few weeks.  Here in Coweta County, our State Court has four weeks of jury trial calendars for criminal and civil trials, and of course I was on all four!  Without getting into much detail on what exactly I've been up to (more on that in another post), I rejoin my  beloved audience with a brief write-up of an app I have been using called Grafio... and thankfully I can check this task off my Reminders list to stop the buzzing every time I get to work.

Grafio is a diagraming app for the iPad and iPhone I got turned onto by one of the blogs I read regularly.  I had been working with my assistant on getting accurate conflict letters out with the proper hierarchy to help streamline getting them out.  With jury trials all through April, I had at least one to do for each week, and conflict letters can be a real pain when you are busy prepping jury charges and the like.  So I thought I would give the app a try by creating a flow chart to help my assistant get things right.  My first try is the picture up top.

How easy was it?  Well, it took me a while to get things looking right, but the interface is pretty intuitive and I didn't need to refer to the manual all that often.  Connectors between the different boxes will snap into place, and you can even draw your own shapes if you like.  There are many fonts. colors, and "canvas" themes to choose from as well, so you can spend as much time as you want to make things pretty.

My only complaints:  this app drains your battery quickly.  Granted, I have an iPad 2 that may not hold a charge as long as its newer brethren, but an hour or so on the app and you will be surprised how much power was used up.  It is really easy to draw unintended lines if you forget to choose the right tool.  Working with the app more often would remedy this, I'm sure.  Lastly, very small images make it difficult to resize or rotate.  I'm still working this out.  

I do like the app plenty, though, and have made a couple more flow charts to help my staff and clients visualize our legal process, which you can see here:

You can see that your work can be as formal or creative as you like.  I have a tendency to forget how effective these tools can be when teaching or persuading; now that I have this app there's no excuse.

Give Grafio a try, and let me know what you think!

Best,

JD

John D. Duncan is president of J.D. Duncan, PC, founding partner of Prater, Duncan & Craig, LLC in Newnan, Georgia, and is Esquire by Day.  You can find him at www.jdduncanlaw.com, or follow him on twitter and Facebook.

Lobby Day at the Capitol

That's me, next to Governor Nathan Deal.  I got to meet him and take this pic during my visit to the Capitol earlier this week.  Because I grew up in South Carolina, I never took the standard field trip in elementary school to the Gold Dome, so this was a great new experience for me.  I should send the Governor a copy of the photo to sign, right?

The reason for my visit this week was in connection with the State Bar of Georgia's Lobby Days and their burgeoning grassroots campaign.  Basically, the idea is to get as many of the 40,000 lawyers in Georgia comfortable at the Capitol so that our voices can be heard when relevant legislation arises.

My day began with the grassroots coordinator, Zach Johnson, who had me sit in on a committee meeting, showed me how to request an audience with senators and representatives during session, where to find all kinds of things at the Capitol, and introduced me to numerous players along the way.  We were able to catch my senator, the Hon. Mike Crane, and we had a nice chat about home and the legislative process.  Overall, a great experience.

I cannot say enough how worthwhile I feel this day was, and I want to encourage my fellow bar members to sign up for one of these days and get comfortable with the legislative process.  If you are not an attorney, don't fret, because everything I did is available to any member of the public!  At the very least, you can get yourself a picture with the Big Man for your hall, office, mantle... you get it.  No matter your goals, you are sure to reap the rewards of participating in the very process that sets this country apart from the rest.

JD

John D. Duncan is president of J.D. Duncan, PC, founding partner of Prater, Duncan & Craig, LLC in Newnan, Georgia, and is Esquire by Day.  You can find him at www.jdduncanlaw.com, or follow him on twitter and Facebook.

Thoughts from our Founding Fathers (a prequel)

"The Founding Fathers were considered traitors by the King of England."

Justice Nahmias of the Supreme Court of Georgia reminded us of this fact last Friday at the State Bar Leadership Institute.

This statement may seem obvious to us today, considering we Americans view England as our former tyrannical government across the Atlantic.  I'm not sure how much of this reminder really sinks in as a result.  When our country today was but a few colonies run by the King, the very notion that England was unfair and needed to be removed from power (at least over us) was indeed risky and could have gotten a man hanged.  We should remember that the founding of the United States was based upon escaping oppressive government while safeguarding against it in the newly formed body.  So it should be no surprise that the Bill of Rights was crafted to limit the new government's power over the individual.

I could go on plenty about how this manifests in various amendments, but that is not the point.  We must remember that our first leaders were willing to step into the line of fire to do what they felt was right.  The purpose of Justice Nahmias' engagement last week, as well as the whole of the program, was to prepare leaders.  In order to lead, we must be willing to take the risky or unpopular position to do what is right.

I think it's important to remember that when talking about the Constitution.  Yes, our Founding Fathers were traitors to the Crown, and we should all thank them for it.

JD

John D. Duncan is president of J.D. Duncan, PC, founding partner of Prater, Duncan & Craig, LLC in Newnan, Georgia, and is Esquire by Day.  You can find him at www.jdduncanlaw.com, or follow him on twitter and Facebook.

Thoughts from our Founding Fathers, no. 2

I have to admit that the following quote gave me fits while researching, and comes from a speech Ben Franklin wrote and presented to the Constitutional Convention in 1787.  What took me down the rabbit hole are the multiple accounts of the speech as given.  There are two main sources: the first, and considered most reliable is the speech as written in Mr. Franklin's own hand, which surfaced in James Madison's journal.  It is this source from which the below quote comes.  The second account of the events as they transpired comes from a letter written in 1825 from a William Steele, who is recounting the events as told to him by General Dayton (yep, that'd be double-hearsay, thank you very much).  As typical with hearsay, Mr. Steele's account was eventually declared unreliable as Mr. Franklin's handwritten speech surfaced.  

"All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of superintending Providence in our favor. To that kind Providence we owe this happy opportunity of consulting in peace on the means of establishing our future national felicity. And have we now forgotten that powerful friend? Or do we imagine that we no longer need His assistance? I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth - that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?  We have been assured, Sir, in the Sacred Writings, that 'except the Lord build the House, they labor in vain that build it'." 

- Benjamin Franklin, to Colleagues at the Constitutional Convention (1787)

This quote is relevant today in the face of prayer-in-school debates, whether we should keep "In God We Trust" on our currency, and the never-ending separation of church and state arguments.  Yes, the Founders were afraid that a strong link between church and state could create Bloody Mary and Henry VIII-style oppression, but that does not mean they were atheists.  It's interesting as I ask God to help me get through my days of emotional litigation that our Founders did the same when constructing the foundation of our great nation.

Benjamin Franklin was born in 1706 in Boston, but ran away to Philadelphia when he was seventeen.  He was an author, scientist, inventor, foreign diplomat, and signed the Declaration of Independence.  You can read more about him here.  You can read about his involvement (and the debate surrounding his involvement) at the Constitutional Convention here.  And thanks again to my father-in-law, Capt. Philip Crowell, III, US Navy (retired) for this one; couldn't do it without him!

Enjoy!

JD

John D. Duncan is president of J.D. Duncan, PC, founding partner of Prater, Duncan & Craig, LLC in Newnan, Georgia, and is Esquire by Day.  You can find him at www.jdduncanlaw.com, or follow him on twitter and Facebook.

Lip Syncing: Should it be illegal???

It's been a couple of weeks since the Inauguration, and much talk has centered around Beyonce' and her "performance" of the National Anthem.  I have been thinking about this since it occurred, but (thankfully) I've been too busy to sit down and write until now.  So before I start recording my closing arguments...

I suppose I should preface this post with a reminder that my undergraduate degree is in music, and that I performed professionally as a saxophonist before law school.  I mention this because my opinion is a bit skewed due to my background.  I'm a firm believer in live performances, and if I want to listen to a recording I will simply go through iTunes.  I hate lip syncing and think it's ridiculous.

For those that may not know what I'm talking about, lip syncing occurs when a performer pre-records his or her songs or vocal tracks and then pretends to perform them in front of a crowd.  It's probably been going on by the less talented for as long as recording and playback have been around.  Since I am a trained musician, I can always spot lip syncing immediately.  I assume performers do this because they are afraid of making a mistake at an important event.  When I was performing, there were times when I was nervous based upon the venue, but that just forced me to practice more.  Unfortunately, the practice has gained so much acceptance that even Yo-Yo Ma pre-recorded a performance because it was so cold (he plays the cello, if you don't know, and outdoor temperatures greatly affect the instrument).  Every now and then a performer embarrasses herself when the words begin and they are obviously not in a position to be singing (see Ashley Simpson, a la Saturday Night Live).

But let's move on to my question:  should it be illegal?  While I personally cannot stand lip syncing and other forms of faux performance, I am not willing to say we should throw people in jail or probation for it.  Fines?  Maybe, but only if we can also fine poor taste in dress, hair cuts, and general style faux pas.  Silly, but I would rather punish the lip syncing offenders in the courts of public opinion rather than actual courts of law (at least criminally).

But what about civil liability?  Should we be able to sue so-called performers that lip sync?  I say yes!  When I buy a ticket to see a show, I expect to witness a live performance.  That is, after all, what I paid for.  If I wanted to listen to a recording, why not just buy the album?  Is not the purchase of a ticket to a live performance not acceptance of a contract between me and the artist, whereby they agree to perform live for me?  If they don't, have they not breached the contract?  The big draw to watching live performance is the nuances only present at that particular show.  Lyrics may change (or are forgotten), guitar solos go on forever, unique instrumentations are used, etc.  It's what makes going to shows fun.

The rub is when most artists lip sync.  Usually, a performer pre-records when the event is so important that a mistake could be catastrophic to their career, and maybe the event.  Inaugurations, Super Bowls, late show performances, and the like are typical.  Artists may get out of the contract argument above simply because these main events only feature a performance as a side-show, and few people would say that they went to the Super Bowl only to watch Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson.

This post may be meandering, but I feel strongly about it and perhaps my emotions have kept my organization at bay.  The Grateful Dead and Miles Davis never pre-recorded their performances.  Sure, some days were therefore better than others, but is that not what brought their audiences closer to them?  I think what really bugs me is that these performers pretend they are singing, rather than just owning up to having a recording do it.  It's an attempt to deceive, and when I catch wind of someone lip syncing, I think less of them.  If an artist is too nervous to perform, too out of practice, or just not very good outside the studio, then just don't perform.  And if a recording is going to be played, just hit 'play.'  No one needs the performance pantomimed.  Ugh.

JD

John D. Duncan is president of J.D. Duncan, PC, founding partner of Prater, Duncan & Craig, LLC in Newnan, Georgia, and is Esquire by Day.  You can find him at www.jdduncanlaw.com, or follow him on twitter and Facebook.

You can agree to just about anything...

I can still hear Prof. Lynch, my contracts professor at John Marshall, utter these words over and over again.  When studying contracts, we typically take a look at what happens in the court system when a particular term is left out or vague.  Prof. Lynch was always quick to point out that (insert situation here) would be quite different had the parties agreed to that particular term.  So a question like "what does the contract say" becomes paramount.  And, a contract can be simply your agreement to be bound to a set of rules, which is apparently exactly what a letter of intent it.

Tomorrow is National Signing Day for high school students being recruited by colleges.  You've seen the (silly) tv broadcasts where multiple hats sit in front of a player and he puts one on to show where he's going to be playing in the fall.  Those students then fax their "letter of intent" to that school and coaches pat themselves on the back.

Knowing from contracts that minors cannot be bound by their contracts, I have always wondered what teeth these letters actually have against the recruits.  After all, you always hear a story or two about a player changing his mind late in the game; what's the point in this signing day business, then?

I did a little digging, and found this great write-up on Letters of Intent here.  While not a lengthy article, the author does answer my questions about enforcement.  Basically, the letter of intent business is sort of a treaty between NCAA schools (minus service academies and ivy league) that they won't poach each other's recruits after the final signing day.  If the student backs out on their letter, schools further agree to certain provisions to "punish" the student.

Interesting to me, since the big hoopla is really little more than a protection to recruits from further harassment by Big College.

JD

John D. Duncan is president of J.D. Duncan, PC, founding partner of Prater, Duncan & Craig, LLC in Newnan, Georgia, and is Esquire by Day.  You can find him at www.jdduncanlaw.com, or follow him on twitter and Facebook.

Thoughts from the Founding Fathers, no. 1

Before heading to law school, I was fascinated with the foresight our Founding Fathers exhibited in creating the US Constitution that exists today.  Of course, my study of law only enhanced my interest in how it was drafted, why certain language was included, and the debate that constantly occupies the nation.  To indulge my own interest, this post is my first entry of many discussing the Founders and will feature a quote from one of them (thanks to my father-in-law, Capt. Philip Crowell, III, US Navy (retired) for feeding these to me).  Enjoy!

"The first and governing maxim in the interpretation of a statute is to discover the meaning of those who made it."

-  James Wilson, Of the Study of Law in the United States (1790)

This statement seems especially important today with the gun control debate centering on the Second Amendment.  Without arguing my personal opinion on the matter, James Wilson's statement suggests that when interpreting the meaning of our Constitution, we should take a look at what it meant to the authors.  This, or course, means taking a look at the Federalist Papers, for a start, as well as statutory construction during the late eighteenth century, among other sources.  I wonder how many citizens involved in the discussion have done that?

James Wilson, for the record, was born in Scotland in 1742 before moving to the US in 1766 to begin practicing law.  He was a signer of the Declaration of Independence and an original Justice of the United States Supreme Court.  You can read more about him here.

Feel free to leave your comments.  I would love to start a dialogue with any willing participant.

Best,

JD

John D. Duncan is president of J.D. Duncan, PC, founding partner of Prater, Duncan & Craig, LLC in Newnan, Georgia, and is Esquire by Day.  You can find him at www.jdduncanlaw.com, or follow him on twitter and Facebook.

I had to laugh

At myself, that is.  Picture this:  having lunch with my fellow Newnan-Coweta Bar Association Board at Fabiano's to discuss upcoming involvement in local moot court competition.  Good conversation over lunch, good food, business concluded.  Lunch right down the road from courthouse, where I am due to appear about 30 minutes later.  Check paid, saying our goodbyes.  SPLASH!!!  Water spills all over me and my iPad.  We all jump up in hopes not to get wet.  Everyone else was luckier than me, but I'm more concerned about ruining my electronics.  iPad saved, but I am soaked.  Yes, this should be a fantastic day in court now.

Every now and then, I totally embarrass myself like this.  All I can do is laugh.  No need to be the court jester, but it's far easier to laugh than to scowl (and way more fun).

And for the record, I dried off with time to spare before I spent a moment before Judge Blackmon.  Thank goodness!

Bespoke: A Rant

I don't know about you, but I grow tired of people that use big or in-vogue words to elevate themselves or their product without really saying anything different.  Granted, my favorite author is Ernest Hemingway, who would never use a $10 word if $1 would suffice, but it bores me to no end seeing advertising that attempts to use a hip word to distinguish their product from the competition.

Enter the era of "bespoke."  I see this word on jewelry sites, lawyer advertising, car dealerships, and even a dog collar shop that offered my American Bulldog a bespoke leather collar.  This word is trending right now, and I'm not sure why considering it has been used in London for hundreds of years.  Companies use the term to describe their product as "customized to the buyer's specifications," but most don't offer near the level of customization that true bespoken products require, and typically not clothes at all.  It's just the cool new word to say your stuff is made specifically for your customer.  But is it actually "bespoke?"

Bespoke is a term coined in London's custom mens suiting district, Savile Row.  Here you will find tailor firms that have been in the same location for generations, and create highly customized suits for their clients, who range from royalty to Jagger.  Their motto is basically that, when you walk out with your new suit, it should look like you've had it your whole life.  The Savile Row Bespoke Association defines the word as follows:

"Bespoke - a suit made on or around Savile Row, bespoken to the customer's specifications. A bespoke suit is cut by an individual and made by highly skilled individual craftsmen. The pattern is made specifically for the customer and the finished suit will take a minimum of 50 hours of hand work and require a series of fittings." 

This term is only appropriately applied to mens garments.  A customer meets with their tailor and picks out his fabric; the fabric then "be spoken" for.  Only suiting fabric is unique enough from one to another to require such a term, with various tweeds, wools, and cashmere blends.  Let's be honest, even custom shoes from John Lobb will use the same black calf skin that their ready-to-wear models boast.  Over the course of a few months, the various tailors, cutters, and fitters, craft a suit that fits the wearer perfectly to his body exactly.  The initial consultation notes things like a slightly lower left shoulder, or that the wearer's profession forces more wear to his right elbow than his left.  The number of specific measurements and notations can be in the hundreds.

In that sense, could a dog collar possibly be "bespoke?"  I'm thinking no, since the shop only asked for my dog's neck size.

Part of this rant comes from a re-boot to my website.  I would love to describe my estate planning services, for instance, as bespoke simply because it does sound great.  And while the wills my clients enjoy are highly customized to fit their specific needs, they are not suits and they (typically) do not take fifty hours to write.  So for my advertising, I will not try to sound clever and use bespoke to describe what isn't bespoke at all.  Customized, yes.  Highly detailed, yes.  But legal services are not to be worn at your daughter's wedding, so bespoke they are not.

JD

John D. Duncan is president of J.D. Duncan, PC, founding partner of Prater, Duncan & Craig, LLC in Newnan, Georgia, and is Esquire by Day.  You can find him at www.jdduncanlaw.com, or follow him on twitter and Facebook.

iPad Stylus Review

Welcome to 2013!  With the new year, I thought I would write about something I typically don't which is a product review.  Actually, this is more of a commentary on what I have found recently using my iPad as a note-taking device in court.  This is by no means an exhaustive list of styluses, but more of some helpful thoughts on what I use, so that you don't experience what I did yesterday.  But if Santa was nice to you this Christmas and you are now in the market for a stylus to go along with your spanking new iPad, this might help.

I have been using Penultimate for taking notes for most of the past year.  I love it's simplicity, and the ability to save my notes into notebooks like a moleskine notebook (which I love and have them scattered all over my office and house).  But just a couple of weeks ago, I downloaded the 2012 app of the year, Paper, and am working with it to see whether I like it better.  Paper is at least far more nice-looking.  The app is not designed specifically for note-taking, but for this review I don't believe the app matters.  While I could do a comparison of these two apps, I will save that for later and focus on the tools instead.

Pogo Sketch Pro:  So, because I am now using Paper for notes (as well as my terrible attempt and drawing when I get bored), I thought I would try the Pogo Sketch Pro since it is one of the styluses that works well with drawing apps.  Thankfully a buddy of mine has one that he doesn't use, so I've been working with it for a couple of weeks.  Off the bat, I like that it has a rubber grip rather than a completely aluminum body.  I drop this far less than the others.  The nib is rubber, which I prefer to the foam ones, but it has tiny holes in the tip and feels lighter than others that I have tried.  More control when drawing, sure, but writing is a problem.  Yesterday, I had a real problem trying to take quick notes, often recording only halves of words.  This could be because I use an anti-glare screen protector on my iPad.  TenOne says this stylus does not support screen protectors.  They mean it.  While I like this stylus for doodling, and it feels great, I'm afraid I can't use it in court like I want to.  Thankfully I had my old stand-by in the briefcase.

Alupen Pro:  I have kept this stylus in my bag for about six months, and it's what I always have used in court.  I like the Alupen line because they are all-aluminum, which feels really cool, and this particular model has a pen on one end which comes in handy in the middle of a hearing.  Having trouble with the Pogo stylus, I switched back to this yesterday and it worked as wonderfully as always.  The nib is a little stiffer, which I think helps make solid contact with my screen protector, and I don't have to think about pressing down in order to write.  The ONLY drawback to this stylus, for me, is the fact that it does not have any rubber grip.  I drop it...a lot.  Aluminum is cool, but this is a slippery stylus.  And I hate dropping things in front of a judge or jury.  The pen end is a screw-up style, so you can't really open the pen with one hand like a click function would, but I have no idea how you would design that feature anyway.

Alupen:  I keep the standard Alupen in my office and at home.  They come in plenty of colors, and also have the all-aluminum construction.  One downside to this stylus is that you cannot get replacement nibs easily.  My bird tore a hole into one, and now I have a perfectly good aluminum stylus with no tip taking space in my bedside table.  This stylus is big and chunky, and also has a very firm nib for writing.  It writes just as good as the Pro above, but it is thicker and heavier (which you may or may not like).  This one is also very slippery.  If you have big hands like I do, however, this might be a great choice.  So many styluses are small enough to fit in your wallet, and I hate hand cramps.

For anyone that has seen my handwriting, you would know that it is terrible, so for me to write a review like this might seem silly.  All three styluses record my handwriting as it really is, unfortunately with no magic spell making my cursive any more beautiful.  After having to go through a motions calendar yesterday, I will no longer take the Pogo Sketch Pro with me.  It's a fine stylus, sure, but it just doesn't work for me when taking notes.  For that, I need a stiff nib that allows me to write quickly so I don't miss any of the judge's order.

Happy Hunting!

JD

John D. Duncan is president of J.D. Duncan, PC, founding partner of Prater, Duncan & Craig, LLC in Newnan, Georgia, and is Esquire by Day.  You can find him at www.jdduncanlaw.com, or follow him on twitter and Facebook.