Missouri Lawyers Media Missouri legal news and public notices

Africa, 1973: I witnessed the “trial” of an acquaintance known as “Australian Bob” in a Nairobi court. The proceeding amounted to his lawyer distributing piles of Kenyan shillings to the prosecutor and judge. Bob looked like he had been beaten ...

It is a clear night in Adel, Iowa, a small town in the center of our country and the epicenter of Dallas County, Iowa. The county courthouse, built in 1902 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places since ...

Although the weather in my part of the world hasn’t quite gotten the memo — until recently, it’s been in the upper 80s and low 90s here — it is officially autumn. Little known fact: the word autumn comes from ...

Last year, a St. Louis jury sent shock waves across the world, awarding 22 plaintiffs nearly $5 billion in compensatory and punitive damages in a lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson regarding claims its asbestos-contaminated talcum powder caused ovarian cancer in ...

Regular readers of this space may remember my dear dog Judge. He died several years ago — I was convinced it was only one or two years, but my wife and the pictures on social media reminded me that it ...

In today’s world, in-school punishments that used to be standard and acceptable now are frowned upon or outright banned and deemed to be illegal. The paddle is long gone. Humiliating an offending child is virtually eliminated. Although not verboten, the ...

Tagged with: Charles Kramer

I have been thinking about September. It’s a good month where I live. The first half can be very hot — Indian summer, as they say — but as the month slides toward October, the morning air smells like change. ...

Tagged with: Mark Levison

I traveled to Kansas City recently to take depositions. Because the depositions were on a Friday and my wife’s birthday was the next day, we decided to go together and spend the weekend in the “City of Fountains.” The depositions ...

Tagged with: Mark Levison

In 1962, in the then-quaint town of Santa Barbara, California, a small lodging establishment known as Motel 6 was born. Since then, Motel 6 has grown into a motel franchise system with more than 1,000 locations, and it now is ...

Tagged with: Charles Kramer Motel 6

Gentle Reader, this is one of THOSE columns: the ones where Middle-Aged Lawyer Man controls my keyboard and my more reasonable voice is silent. Young folks either can’t relate or compare me to their dads. Or granddads. I have been ...

Tagged with: Spencer Farris

I lived in Oklahoma when I was young. Most politicians from my home state were Democrats, and the term “yellow dog Democrat” was a common label for my fellow citizens. The saying went that these folks would vote for an ...