Legal Humor?

Posted on 19. Aug, 2009 by Chris Matney in Book Publishing, Front Page Posts

It has been a long three days for me. One of the reasons for this is that Trapdoor Books is finalizing its printing and distribution channel contracts, setting up its accounting infrastructure, and trying to get our lawyers to come up with a fair contract for both the writers and us. In short, I have spent a few too many hours on legal and tax documents. Now, I realize these are important – having started a business that eventually sold software and delivered services across the globe – it is nice to avoid some of the mistakes of the past. And, I am a very thorough person. But, I don’t want to hear the words “herein” or “thereof” for a couple of days.

On the lighter side of the law, there was a posting on BoingBoing today that pointed to Chip Rowe’s column Don’t Blame Me. It is a very funny look at the absurdity of legal claims made in America. Here are a few classics.

“A student who fell from a window while mooning passersby sued the university because it hadn’t posted a caution sign.”

“An elderly woman who injured her hands while trying to turn on the lights demanded the maker of the Clapper give her $50,000.”

And even our industry is not immune. “A well-known romance writer, accused of plagiarism, blamed an unnamed ‘psychological problem I never even suspected I had’” for her crime. Ironically, she won the case. Even more ironically, she is still cranking out romance novels.

It just goes to show you that a) herein, you can’t protect yourself legally from everything that happens (although the last three days seem to try) and b) the spirit of the law, or the lack thereof, is a problem for many Americans.

Now, I need to find a nice cold beer and a good book to read.