Confidential v. Confidential (Cal. Super.)
Court awards $12M to woman who contracted HIV from husband

2008 WL 6178828 Verdict Summary
2002 WL 34423136 Plaintiff’s complaint

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Patrick Henry was one of our most verbally gifted Founding Fathers, and on March 23, 1775, he delivered this famous line in a crowded church in Richmond as he urged his fellow Virginians to commit troops to the looming war with Great Britain.

“Gentlemen may cry, ‘Peace! Peace!’ – but there is no peace; the war is actually begun!” he shouted to the crowd. “The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”

At least that’s what we think he said. Patrick Henry’s words had to be reconstructed by historians years later, since no one bothered to write them down at the time. (You can read the speech here, courtesy of the University of Oklahoma College of Law, or listen to it here, courtesy of The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.)

Regardless of the exact words he used, there’s no doubt that Patrick Henry was a phenomenal public speaker with a talent for stirring up crowds – but his oratory skills weren’t always evident, even to himself. He was born and raised on a Virginia plantation but didn’t have much ambition for life on the farm. And by the time he turned 20, he was already a failed businessman with a reputation as a slacker.

Patrick Henry found his calling at the age of 25, when he decided to pursue a career in law. He passed the bar exam after just six weeks of study, and soon after that he began arguing cases before the courts. In 1765, he was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses, and just a year after his famous speech, voters made him the first governor of the independent state of Virginia.

Patrick Henry’s feisty defiance didn’t end with the war. During the 1780s, he led the original states’ rights movement – the “anti-federalist” movement – whose adherents fiercely opposed replacing the Articles of Confederation with the yet-to-be-ratified U.S. Constitution, which would concentrate much more power into the hands of the federal government. Anti-federalist opposition led directly to the passage of the Bill of Rights, and echoes of this sentiment – like Patrick Henry’s famous call to arms – can still be heard today.

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“Time sneaks up on you like a windshield on a bug.” – John Lithgow

We all sense that proverbial windshield lurking behind us, which may be why we’re always looking for new ways to carve out more time for the things we love.

For Sarah C., an associate at a Denver law firm, WestlawNext has provided one more way to do that.

“The great thing about WestlawNext is the less time that I spend researching, the more time I can spend outside riding my bike or skiing or running,” she told Jenny at the WestlawNext preview breakfast event in the spectacular Mile-High City. (You can see the Denver video here.)

Along with that extra time, Sarah will have a boost of extra caffeine to fuel her outdoor adventures. As the fourth and final winner of our What’s Next Trivia contest, she’ll be receiving a $30 Starbucks gift card for correctly naming the type of hat worn by Johnny and Jenny in the Dallas and Denver videos. (It was a cowboy hat, of course.) Congratulations, Sarah!

And thanks to everyone who played along over the past several weeks. We had a blast with the videos and the trivia contest, and we hope you did too.

The John Lithgow quote came from Uncle Anthony’s Unabridged Analogies: Quotes & Proverbs for Lawyers and Lecturers, which is available at a 10% discount to Westlaw Insider readers. (That means you!)

“You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed to you.”

Most of us have heard the Miranda warning recited by TV cops so many times, we know it  by heart. But even though this particular right has its roots in the Constitution, it did not always apply to any defendant accused of a serious crime.

Clarence Earl Gideon learned this the hard way. In 1961, the indigent 51-year-old was accused of breaking into a Florida pool hall where he had worked from time to time and stealing money from the jukebox and cigarette machine – a felony offense at the time.

At his trial, Clarence Gideon told the judge that he was too poor to afford a lawyer and asked the court to provide one – a request that was politely denied.

“Mr. Gideon,” the judge said, “I am sorry, but I cannot appoint counsel to represent you in this case. Under the laws of the State of Florida, the only time the court can appoint counsel to represent a defendant is when that person is charged with a capital offense.”

After being sentenced to five years, Gideon wrote a letter to the justices of the Supreme Court from the library of the Florida State Prison – and astonishingly, the Court agreed to review his case.

On March 18, 1963, the Supreme Court ruled in Gideon v. Wainwright that “in all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.” The Court’s decision effectively made the Sixth Amendment’s guarantee of counsel in criminal cases a fundamental right that, under the Fourteenth Amendment, could not be denied by the states.

This expanded right to counsel was one of several decisions by the Warren Court that extended new protections to criminal defendants. Another was the 1966 Miranda v. Arizona decision, which led to the practice of “Mirandizing” suspects – and inspiring some of the most familiar lines in TV history.