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While networks like C-Span and political blogs have tried to interject a bit of excitement into what goes on in Washington D.C., the goings-on over at the Supreme Court tend to be remarkably dull. Often times, cameras are not allowed inside the Supreme Court so Americans sitting at home and school children in classrooms all across the country are not given a chance to witness how the system really works. Because of that, it is safe to say that the Supreme Court is the least understood branch of federal government. Let’s take a look at some little known facts that help to make the Supreme Court much more interesting place than most people realize.

Many people don’t know that the President of the United States has the right to argue a case in front of the Supreme Court. Since not every President has a background in law, this right isn’t exercised on a regular basis. The last time it happened was with former President Nixon arguing on behalf of a family who was suing Time Magazine for invasion of privacy. Perhaps one of the main reasons why a sitting president no longer tries to argue cases in front of the Supreme Court is the possibility that he will come out on the wrong side of the decision, which is exactly what happened to President Nixon when the court sided with Time Magazine.

Not all Presidents have come up short when it comes to arguing a case in front of the Supreme Court. Fans of the hit film Amistad remember that President John Quincy Adams argued on behalf of the slaves who won their freedom thanks to the ruling by the Supreme Court.

For a university to be able to brag to wealthy alums and to prospective students that their law school has churned out a Supreme Court justice is worth its weight in gold, but no other school can claim that two Supreme Court justices not only attended their school but did it at the same time. Stanford University has that honor with justices Sandra Day O’Connor and Chief Justice William Rehnquist being classmates. No word on if the two were pals.

Every year, the Supreme Court begins a new session where they decide on important cases to hear. Many people do not know that the annual Supreme Court session always begins on the same day. Every year, the first Monday in October sees the court reconvene for another year of landmark cases and critical analysis.

Due to the extremely sensitive nature of some of the cases heard before the Supreme Court, sometimes, false names are used to protect the identity of various participants. No false name is more widely known than plaintiff Jane Roe in the historic Roe v. Wade case that legalized abortion. In the years since the case was heard, the woman behind Jane Roe has spoken publicly about the case and her real name, Norma McCorvey is known, although not nearly as widely as her nom de plume

As any first world resident knows, the Internet has completely changed the way many of us live our lives. We send email now instead of written letters and we play online games against hundreds of other people sprinkled throughout the world instead of board games at home. The sheer number of ways the Internet has impacted our lives is still being counted and quantified by experts all over the world, including lawyers who have found themselves on the front lines of constitutional law battles in cyberspace. Since the Internet is still the “wild, wild west” is so many ways, it can be difficult to even determine what laws have been broken and who has proper jurisdiction in certain cases. Let’s take a look at a few different fronts in which constitutional law battles are taking place this very day in the online world.

Perhaps the most publicized part of online constitutional law is cases involving free speech. The recent decision by search engine giant Google to start censoring their searches that are made from IP addresses that come from China stirred a significant amount of conversation when it comes to the debate of what you can and can’t say online. Since so many websites are created each and every day and only a fraction of them are linked to various search engines or other web pages, it is safe to say that the overwhelming majority of speech online never gets challenged, but for those websites that do have the tone, message or style of their site brought into question, what rights do website owners or bloggers have and which ones do they not? There are no easy answers here and just like other parts of law, the definitions of rights are constantly evolving and changing as rulings pour in.

A somewhat less controversial but still critical part of constitutional law online pertains to criminal law. Issues such as where a crime was committed in connection to where a website is hosted and how standing criminal law can be applied to online cases is an ongoing debate that shows no signs of slowing down. When you add in free speech components and esoteric ideas such as religious expression, the waters become even murkier. Recent rulings have changed the way that federal authorities can lure or trap a computer user into committing a crime and with a litany of other landmark court cases on the horizon, it will be interesting to see how constitutional criminal law online evolves in the coming years.

Easily one of the most frustrating parts of online constitutional law is the enforcement of copyrights. The speed and efficiently in which a copyrighted piece of material can be copied, altered and distributed is downright scary and when you broaden your search to include international copyright law, enforcement can grind to a standstill. Of all of the areas of online constitutional law, copyright law is easily the one in the most urgent need of an overhaul.

When you live in a country that has both state laws and federal laws, you can sometimes run into a conflict of laws situation where a court has to decide which state laws govern a case in a particular situation, or the occasional battle between state and federal laws. Ever since the founding of the country, courts have battled, argued and formed precedence on these matters and even though we are only at one spot on the never ending continuum of defining conflicts of laws, we will try to take a look at how the process has worked up to this point.

In essence, there are three different ways that the conflict of law can be examined. State courts have two different procedures, one called lex fori and one known as lex loci, while the federal court system uses the Constitution of the United States to interpret how different state laws can trump each other in certain qualifications.

In the case of lex fori, a court will decide on a law conflict if the conflict has to do with procedural law. This is known as the law of the forum state and is often interpreted as following the law in which the court resides in. A simple example would be if a court case is brought up where two people from two different states are fighting over a piece of land located in the state where the court case is being heard. The state laws in both states say that the other state has jurisdiction, so the court would rule that the state in which the court case is being heard trumps the state in which either the plaintiff or the defendant is from.

In a case of lex loci, the court will apply the rules and laws of that state in which the violation of law actually happened in. This is the most obvious choice for the overwhelming majority of cases in which a conflict of law happens in.

There have been several tests to the conflict of law argument over the last 200-plus years since the founding of the United States and the inevitable conflict between states rights began. Let’s look at how some of these precedents have been set.

A significant contracts test is sometimes used to help resolve a conflicts of law scenario. With this test, the judge must decide which state is most closely involved in the case. Since this is subjective, it is highly criticized by observers who want a more objective way of resolving the conflict.

With the Seat of Relationship test, the judge will examine in which state the majority of the interaction and business between the two took place. If one state appears to have a clear majority, then that state’s laws will be used.

Other such tests as the Better Rule test, the comparative impairment test and the Balance of Interests tests also influence conflict of laws resolutions. The Supreme Court has even ruled on several occasions on how conflicts of laws resolutions are to be resolved. The defining of these laws is, as always, a work in progress.

Of all of the different types of law available, choosing a lawyer to represent your conflict of laws case can be extremely difficult. There are many difficult aspects to conflict of laws cases and you will likely need a specialist that works for a major law firm. Finding a small town lawyer with experience in this field is unlikely so don’t be surprised if you have to search a bit harder than you would for a personal injury lawyer. Let’s take a look at a few things you should keep in mind if you need a conflict of laws attorney.

First off, this is one field of law that you don’t want to settle on. Conflict of law cases are some of the most difficult to understand and to muddle through, so you don’t want to use a family attorney or an attorney that you are personal friends with who has no real knowledge of this type of law. You may have to contact a lawyer that is quite a ways away from you, but paying the travel expenses in this case is more than worth it.

Second, make sure you choose a lawyer who communicates with you clearly and easily. As a litigant in a conflict of laws case, you have the right to understand each and every aspect of your case and since this type of law is quite dense, you are going to need a lawyer who is especially good at breaking things down into simpler parts so that you can understand where you stand and what your rights are at all times. If you don’t have a good working relationship with your attorney, you will likely have serious problems with your conflict of laws case.

A majority of conflict of laws cases have to do with business dealings that more than one state claims to have jurisdiction over, so there is a good chance that any conflict of laws attorney that you hire will have a major background in business. If they don’t, you might want to keep looking for the perfect lawyer for you if your conflict of laws case has to do with a business deal gone sour. There are, of course, other situations where you might need a conflict of laws attorney, and it is important that you pick the right one that most closely understands and relates to your individual case.

Finally, it may be a no-brainer to some, but when many people get involved in this type of lawsuit, the verbiage and the jargon becomes so overwhelming that many people stop asking questions about the proceedings. This is a huge mistake. Your lawyer is there to act as an interpreter during your journey through the court system and even though he or she may be interpreting case law as they go, you still have a right and a duty to ask questions and have them answered in a polite, professional way. If you aren’t getting that, search for a new lawyer.

Over the years, some of the most controversial and most influential cases in American court history have been conflict law cases. While some of the best known cases have been disputes between state laws that conflicted, the Supreme Court of the United States has made several rulings that have impacted how conflict law cases could be interpreted and used. Let’s take a look at these historical ruling and the lasting impact they have made in the field of conflict law.

In the five main case rulings by the Supreme Court, the justices cited the Constitution as creating a limitation in the way that a state can apply their law to a different state. In all five rulings, the justices found in favor of state’s rights in the sense that one state can remain sovereign over other states that have stricter laws.

In a case from 1930, the Supreme Court ruled that a law passed in Texas that stated that any contract made in the state of Texas had to have a two year statue of limitations. The case saw a circumstance where a Texas resident signed a contract with a firm from New York State. The Texas resident felt that the contract was broken and sought legal remedy, but the Supreme Court ruled with the New York firm who felt it couldn’t be held responsible for a rule in Texas.

In 1939, a conflict case highlighted workers rights when a worker in California tried to sue for an injury received on the job, even though the company was based in Massachusetts and the worker lived in Massachusetts. The court decided that, in this case, California law did not apply in this situation and they sided with the company who they felt did not need to abide by the Full Faith and Credit Clause on the California law books.

The rights of companies were further strengthened in 1954 when a couple purchased an insurance policy in the state of Illinois where they once lived and then moved to Louisiana, where they proceeded to sue their Illinois insurance company under a law on the books in Louisiana, but not in Illinois.

There were no more major conflict of law cases until the 1980’s, which saw individual rights trump those of a corporation. In this landmark case, a man, who was employed by a Minnesota based company but actually lived just over the border in Wisconsin, was killed in a traffic accident in Wisconsin. Once the accident occurred, the wife moved a short distance away over the state line into Minnesota to administer his estate and she sued the insurance company for a higher award that would have been due under Minnesota law but not under Wisconsin law and she won. This reversed a long standing trend of companies and corporations winning conflict of law cases over individuals.

The most recent major conflict of law ruling took place in 1985 and saw the Supreme Court rule that when class action suits are brought by people from multiple states, the court hearing the question must consider the laws of each state for each plaintiff.

As you can see conflict of law cases are constantly shaping and changing the way we interpret the status quo, and you can bet that it will continue to change as time goes on.

Most people have never heard of conflict of law cases. They sound rather dry and when you try to explain them to someone who doesn’t have a law degree, they can come across sounding extremely complicated, but even though this branch of law is far from flashy, there have been several rulings over the years that have impacted how laws are interpreted to this day. Let’s take look at conflict of law cases throughout time and see if we can spotlight how they influence today’s modern society.

One of the most applicable pats of conflict law comes from divorce resolutions. If both parties in a divorce are from the same area and there is no property or belongings that overlap state or federal lines, then resolving the divorce is fairly straightforward, but if one or both of the parties are from a foreign country, the legal proceedings can become very time consuming to say the least. There are a series of rules and applications that divorce courts in the United States will use to attempt to distribute the property and belongings fairly, but in some cases, other countries have to agree with the rulings made in US court. If they don’t, an agreed upon solution may take decades.

Conflict law has also gone a long way in helping to determine the rights of the individual versus the rights of a company or corporation. In Watson v. Employers Liability Assurance Corp (1954), the Supreme Court of the United States decided that one law on the books in one state can not tie a corporation to rules that aren’t present in their own state. Fifty years before this when automobiles were still a figment of the imagination, it would have been impossible for an insurance company to imagine getting a policy in one state and then being sued by a law in a state 2000 miles away, but that’s exactly what happened in this case. The Supreme Court ruled on behalf of the insurance company and today, insurance companies simply sell different policies in every state they are allowed to do business in and many policies strictly state that if you leave state A, you must get a new policy.

Conflict of law rulings have also completely revolutionized the way class action lawsuits are heard by courts. In the landmark Phillips Petroleum Co. v. Shutts case from 1985, the Supreme Court ruled that a class action lawsuit must be considered under each individual law from each individual state in which each plaintiff is from. This is very significant when you consider the size and complexity of some class action lawsuits which can involve people from all 50 states. While this ruling may have done quite a bit to slow down the legal process, it does ensure that everyone gets a fair hearing under the laws that govern that particular state.

Conflict of law cases might lack glamour, but they are hugely influential in the day to day life of American citizens.

To the outside observer, a conflict of law case can come across as quite boring. There is a lot of procedural talk and enough jargon to put anyone other than a law fanatic to sleep faster than even the best sleeping pills, but a good conflict of law case can often create a delicate ballet where a court must decide on which states’ laws take prescience in a certain case. Without even knowing it, a court can be creating their own precedents that will be used to determine similar cases for years or even decades to come. Let’s take a look at the general format used by most conflict of laws cases in the United States.

First, the court of law in question must decide if they are even entitled to hear the case that has been presented in front of them. The big question that most courts have to decide is if they are more likely or less likely to give a favorable ruling to one party or another. The common practice of forum shopping has created a court system where cases are often moved from one area to another for no other reason than either the prosecution or the defense believes that they are more likely to get a ruling in their favor in that courtroom. If the court finds that no legitimate forum shopping or at least no forum shopping of any consequence has happened, than the case can proceed to the next step.

Next, the court is going to have to break down the key components of the case and decide which legal categories they belong to. This is known as characterization, and it can be quite the lengthy process. Since the jurisdiction that the case is being heard in might not have a particular law that was violated, the court then has to interpret and decide how this case broke a law in another jurisdiction that is claiming some sort of right in the case.

Once the case has been broken down into pieces that are more easily handled by the court, the court must then apply the various choice of law rules to each section so that the court can then try the case. There are a half dozen or so different ways in which a court can decide which states’ laws apply for each category. This part of the case can also take a significant amount of time as both lawyers will argue passionately that each individual section of the case should be interpreted in favor of their client and not the other side. It can be a bit ironic to watch a lawyer argue for a law to be interpreted one way on a Monday and then have it interpreted in exactly the opposite way later in the week when a second client would benefit from a different ruling, but that’s the American court system.

Once the ground rules have been laid down, the case proceeds as normal, and it is tried. The final part of the system includes getting recognition from courts in other jurisdictions to honor the ruling.

In the exciting and unpredictable world of conflict of law cases, the biggest question to be answered is who has the jurisdiction in various situations. Unfortunately, understanding who has jurisdiction is an ever evolving process that is constantly be updated, refined and finessed by various Supreme Court rulings and rulings by lower courts. Let’s take a look at a few of the conventional arguments that you are likely to see in a conflict of law case to help decide whose set of laws reign supreme.

The arguments used in a conflict of laws case will depend directly on what sort of case it is being heard. The overwhelming majority of conflict of laws cases have to do with business dealings that often contain a contract that was signed in one state by residents of different states and there is a question as to which state laws or a federal law actually governs the outcome of that contract. One of the common arguments used to decide jurisdiction is known as The Better Rule Test. In recent years, the Better Rule test has been used less and less because it is often believed that this particular rule is simply an easy way for a court to apply its own jurisdiction over the rules of one or more other states. The rule states that when you lay out the rules of the conflicting states, that one set of laws or rules are simply better than the other. The obvious conflict happens when the judge feels that the laws on the state the court is located in are always automatically better, which is the usual outcome. This rule is not used nearly as often as it use to be.

A second test that some courts use to figure out the proper jurisdiction is known as the comparative impairment test. This test asks the court to look at which state stands to suffer the most if their law is not implemented. This is a more popular test than the subjective Better Law test, but it is also routinely criticized since it doesn’t take in to account which state might benefit more from having their law enforced. It is up to the court and the lawyers to decide on an argument, and for obvious reasons, the lawyers are going to argue for the choice that benefits their client over any other choice.

Finally, the Balance of Interest test was born in the 1950’s and 1960’s and simply takes a objective look at why the various states in question have the laws they do and how those laws came to be. The court will try to analyze which state took more care in crafting their laws, what the main, driving force was behind those laws being created and enforced and the court will try to find a logical pattern or reason behind the two conflicting laws. In essence, it is a logic test to decide who gets jurisdiction. This is the most widely acceptable way to determine which law has jurisdiction in today’s court system.

It is a word that many of us who watch law dramas hear about but it is something few of us ever imagine giving in person. A deposition is a very serious legal proceeding that requires a person to speak under oath to lawyers representing both sides of a civil lawsuit. If you lie and are caught, you can face serious legal repercussions so it is important to know exactly what you are getting yourself into before you sit down in the court room. Let’s take a look at what a deposition is and how the whole procedure works.

When you are asked to give a deposition, you will appear in a courtroom with a court reporter and lawyers representing both sides of the case. The only thing that will essentially be missing will be a judge and a jury; other than that, it will feel just like testifying in court. Both lawyers will question you, and your testimony will be recorded and used at the trial. There are a few different reasons why you may be asked to give a deposition.

The first is that both lawyers are collecting evidence for an upcoming trial. What you say on your deposition can be used during the trial, read out loud so that the jury can hear it and is considered just as serious and legally binding as if you were testifying during the trial itself. A deposition is also used for what is known as discovery. Discovery is the period before the trial where the lawyers try to collect information, follow leads and discover evidence, almost like a police officer investigating the case. Your deposition can also be used to impeach another witness if your testimonies clash – that’s why it is so important to always tell the truth in your deposition. Finally, a deposition can almost be practice to see how you would look/react/sound in front of a real jury. Even if you give a deposition, you may be called back to testify at a trial.

You have the right to read the deposition that is written by the court reporter and sign it saying that what is there is correct. No matter what anyone tells you, you do not have to waive this right if you don’t want to.

Let’s take a look at a few helpful tips that can help calm your nerves during this sometimes uncomfortable experience. First off, it is always a good idea to be honest. Some people come to a deposition with the intention of protecting a friend or exaggerating what they saw, but having to remember a web of lies is difficult, and you can commit perjury without even knowing it and that can lead to jail time. If you have your own lawyer, listen to them, otherwise answer every question that is asked of you to the fullest of your ability. Finally, if someone asks you a question and you don’t fully understand, it is extremely important to ask so that you don’t give an untrue answer at any point, even if it is by accident.

Going to court is not an experience most of us look forward to, but even if heading in front of a judge is something you dread, it is vitally important for people everywhere to know their rights and know what to expect if you find yourself heading to small claims court. Most people have heard of small claims court but they aren’t quite sure how it works or what is involved in a small claims court proceeding. Let’s take a look at what small claims court is for and what you will have to do to prepare yourself for an appearance in front of the judge. Before we start, it is extremely important to note that state law dictates much of what goes on in small claims court, which means that your experience, rules and format may differ depending on the state you call home.

In short, small claims court is used to resolve disputes between private citizens for small amounts of money. Although each state has its own limit on how much money can be at stake with a small claims case, the limit is usually set at $5,000. According to recent statistics, the overwhelming majority of cases brought to small claims court in the United States represent tenant/landlord disputes as well as disputes over small amounts of money, sometimes only a few hundred dollars.

Agreeing to go to small claims court can limit your rights depending on where you live. In some states, trying your claim in small claims court means that this is the end of the line for your claim and you give up the right to try your case in a more formal court of law, while other states give the right of appeal so that any decision can be tried in a higher court. Make sure you understand the laws in your area before you being your court proceedings.

In general, most small claims court proceedings don’t need lawyers. The entire small claims court system is set up with the idea of keeping things as simple and straight forward as possible and in most cases, people represent themselves. The only time one can really expect to see a lawyer in small claims court is if a corporation is involved since they have them on staff already.

Along with lawyers, you also seldom see juries, although there are exceptions. Most, if not all, decisions are made by the judge presiding over the case.

In some states, the parties involved may be asked to use a third party arbitrator instead of a traditional judge in small claims court. This is to help save time and expense as most small claims court dockets are extremely busy. In states where arbitration isn’t available, many counties have booklets or information available to the general public for resolving difficult cases outside of the court system.

Small claims court is a necessary and important part of the United States court system that is used each and every day to solve minor disputes from coast to coast.