Happy Thanksgiving

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November 28, 2013

I wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving. For everyone in the military serving away from family, and emergency responders on duty, thank you. My mother was a paramedic and I remember the many holidays with her working to keep others safe.

One of my Thanksgiving traditions is reading President Abraham Lincoln’s 1864 Thanksgiving Proclamation. I posted it below from The American Presidency Project.

It has pleased Almighty God to prolong our national life another year, defending us with His guardian care against unfriendly designs from abroad and vouchsafing to us in His mercy many and signal victories over the enemy, who is of our own household. It has also pleased our Heavenly Father to favor as well our citizens in their homes as our soldiers in their camps and our sailors on the rivers and seas with unusual health. He has largely augmented our free population by emancipation and by immigration, while He has opened to us new sources of wealth and has crowned the labor of our workingmen in every department of industry with abundant rewards. Moreover, He has been pleased to animate and inspire our minds and hearts with fortitude, courage, and resolution sufficient for the great trial of civil war into which we have been brought by our adherence as a nation to the cause of freedom and humanity, and to afford to us reasonable hopes of an ultimate and happy deliverance from all our dangers and afflictions:

Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do hereby appoint and set apart the last Thursday in November next as a day which I desire to be observed by all my fellow-citizens, wherever they may then be, as a day of thanksgiving and praise to Almighty God, the beneficent Creator and Ruler of the Universe. And I do further recommend to my fellow-citizens aforesaid that on that occasion they do reverently humble themselves in the dust and from thence offer up penitent and fervent prayers and supplications to the Great Disposer of Events for a return of the inestimable blessings of peace, union, and harmony throughout the land which it has pleased Him to assign as a dwelling place for ourselves and for our posterity throughout all generations.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington, this 20th day of October, A.D. 1864, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-ninth.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

By the President:

WILLIAM H. SEWARD,

Secretary of State

Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Lawyers on Day of the Doctor

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Josh Gilliland

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November 28, 2013

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Judge Matthew Sciarrino, Christina MacDougall, Esq., and Joshua Gilliland, Esq., discuss Day of the Doctor and An Adventure in Time & Space. Each shares views on the contract issues presented by not knowing which side you represent as seen in the human/Zygon negotiations.

Thinking of Things I’m Thankful for…

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Jessica_alegalgeek

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November 27, 2013

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It’s time once again to think of everything I’m thankful for…especially as a legal geek. In no particular order, here goes.

This year, I am thankful for:

My awesome geek partner, Josh, who picked up the slack during so many parts of my crazy year.
The ABA Journal, who just named us a Blawg 100 honoree, which is so exciting!
Our great guests, like Judges Sciarrino and Grewal and e-discovery guru (and fellow Longhorn) Craig Ball.
Howard Stern. I’m a huge Stern fan and he’s given me fodder for multiple posts, plus I had a Twitter exchange with one of his producers as a result of a LG post, which was beyond exciting (even my kids knew what a big deal that was)!
Those judges out there who write great opinions and aren’t afraid to express some creativity in their opinions.
A broken hand. If I have to injure myself (and, apparently, it’s what I do), I’ll take that over a ruptured Achilles’ tendon any day. It’s actually taught me to relax (a bit), but it makes typing tough so I’m ending my list here.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Vote 4 The Legal Geeks in the ABA Journal Blawg 100

By

Josh Gilliland

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November 27, 2013

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Josh Gilliland, Esq., asks for your vote for The Legal Geeks in the “For Fun” category of the ABA Journal

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Thank You from Jess & Josh on being an ABA Journal Blawg 100 Honoree

By

Josh Gilliland

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November 26, 2013

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Jessica Mederson and Josh Gilliland thank the ABA Journal Editors and everyone who nominated them for the Blawg 100 list.

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The Legal Geeks Made the ABA Journal Blawg 100

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Josh Gilliland

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November 25, 2013

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Thank you everyone who nominated The Legal Geeks for the ABA Journal’s Blawg 100.

Jessica and I are thrilled the editors of ABA Journal announced The Legal Geeks was selected as one of the top 100 best blogs for a legal audience.

Here is how the ABA Journal Editors described us:

Jessica Mederson and Josh Gilliland— lawyers and lovers of pop culture—are perhaps the nation’s foremost experts on the legal issues that can be studied from John Cusack movies. Don’t miss their irreverent video and audio podcasts, in which you can learn about everything from Renaissance fairs and comic-cons to torts and tortes. (You may remember Gilliland from past Blawg 100s as the author of Bow Tie Law’s Blog. The bow ties still make an appearance.)

Now that the editors have made their picks, the ABA Journal is asking readers to weigh in and vote on their favorites in each of the 7th Annual Blawg 100’s 13 categories. Go to http://www.abajournal.com/blawg100 to register and vote. Voting ends at close of business on Dec. 20, 2013. The Legal Geeks is in the For Fun category. We would appreciate your vote!

Again, Jessica and I want to thank everyone who nominated The Legal Geeks. We now ask for your vote in the For Fun category.

About the ABA Journal:

The ABA Journal is the flagship magazine of the American Bar Association, and it is read by half of the nation’s 1.1 million lawyers every month. It covers the trends, people and finances of the legal profession from Wall Street to Main Street to Pennsylvania Avenue. ABAJournal.com features breaking legal news updated as it happens by staff reporters throughout every business day, a directory of more than 3,600 lawyer blogs, and the full contents of the magazine.

About the ABA:

With nearly 400,000 members, the American Bar Association is the largest voluntary professional membership organization in the world. As the national voice of the legal profession, the ABA works to improve the administration of justice, promotes programs that assist lawyers and judges in their work, accredits law schools, provides continuing legal education, and works to build public understanding around the world of the importance of the rule of law.

Gallifrey Stands! But What About the Marriages?

By

Josh Gilliland

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November 25, 2013

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Gallifrey Stands! The Day of the Doctor was a magnificent tribute to 50 years of Doctor Who. There was action, heroics, and 50 years of geek homages.

And of course, the question hiding in plain sight: Could the Tenth Doctor have a valid marriage to Queen Elizabeth I? Does this marriage make the Doctor a bigamist, given the Eleventh Doctor’s marriages to Marilyn Monroe in 1952 and and River Song in 2011?

As a preliminary matter, bigamy is the act of marrying one person while still legally married to another. Westlaw Black’s Law 9th Dictionary App. The law only allows a person to have one spouse at a time. See, Antony T. v Rosemarie B.T., 41 Misc. 3d 1208(A), 1208A (N.Y. Sup. Ct. 2013), citing 11 NY Prac, New York Law of Domestic Relations § 9:5.

The Tenth Doctor’s marriage to Queen Elizabeth I in the 1564 is the earliest known marriage to a human. The Eleventh Doctor marriage to Marilyn Monroe was on Christmas Eve 1952 and to River Song on April 22, 2011 in an alternate timeline.

Focusing on California law, since the second marriage to Marilyn Monroe was in California, states the following on marriage:

(a) A subsequent marriage contracted by a person during the life of a former husband or wife of the person, with a person other than the former husband or wife, is illegal and void from the beginning, unless:

(1) The former marriage has been dissolved or adjudged a nullity before the date of the subsequent marriage.

(2) The former husband or wife (i) is absent, and not known to the person to be living for the period of five successive years immediately preceding the subsequent marriage, or (ii) is generally reputed or believed by the person to be dead at the time the subsequent marriage was contracted.

Cal Fam Code § 2201.

The Eleventh Doctor’s marriage to Marilyn Monroe was 349 years after the death of Queen Elizabeth I in 1603. Pursuant to Cal Fam Code § 2201(a)(2)(ii), the Doctor had a valid marriage to Marilyn Monroe, because Queen Elizabeth I was dead at the time the Doctor-Monroe marriage was contracted in 1952. In arguendo, the Tenth Doctor abandoned his marriage to Elizabeth I, which explained her anger in The Shakespeare Code that was never again addressed in the series.

The Doctor-Monroe marriage had to be annulled sometime shortly after the marriage, because Monroe married Joe DiMaggio in 1954 and then Arthur Miller in 1956. However, if not annulled, the Doctor-Monroe marriage would void the subsequent marriages to DiMaggio and Miller.

The Doctor’s marriage to River Song appears to not have a prior marriage that would nullify it, because it was 408 years after the death of Elizabeth I (however, all of time was collapsing on itself) and the dissolution of the Monroe marriage or Monroe’s death in 1962 (assuming the marriage was never annulled). This also assumed a marriage in Egypt in an alternate reality bound only by a bow tie without a marriage license is valid.

What we do not know about the Doctor is his first wife and children. What happened to them? More importantly, will we ever see Susan again? Her husband only had one life to live, while she had another twelve. Or how about the Doctor’s daughter? For those who want to follow the adventures of a female Time Lord, either Time Lady would be the natural choice for a spin-off series to kick-off the next 50 years.