Law and Disorder: Absurdly Funny Moments from the Courts

by Charles M. Sevilla, Lee Lorenz (Illustrations)

Charles M. Sevilla finds comic gems in court transcripts and now brings readers a delightful, all-new collection. Starting with a chapter on the defendants (one of whom, when asked his marital status, replies after a long pause, Adequate ) and following with sections on lawyers, experts, witnesses, evidence, and even one called Malaprops (DA: The status of the boat has no relevance to this case at all. This is a total fishing expedition). Stories from the previous books have become viral Internet sensations, priming readers for more legal disorder, such as: Clerk: Do you solemnly swear that the testimony you are about to given in the cause now pending before this court shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?

Witness: Yes, I swear. I ll say anything but the truth, nothing but the truth."

Genres: Nonfiction, Humor, Law

256 pages, Paperback

First published August 4, 2014

About the author

Perennially on the “Best Lawyers in America” list, Charles M. Sevilla has a private law practice in San Diego. He is the author of Wilkes on Trial and Wilkes: His Life and Crimes and a columnist for Forum.

Reviews

[Edward · Rating 1 out of 5]

I found a handful of the stories funny. The highlight of the book to me, were the quotes at the beginning of each chapter. Over all it was not as funny as I was expecting.

[Jacqueline · Rating 3 out of 5]

I only found a few of these excerpts to be funny. For the most part I had to force myself to finish reading. I enjoyed the last book I read by Charles M. Sevilla that was similar to this one. On a positive note the pictures and famous quotes in the beginning of each chapter were entertaining. Too bad the people quoted in the courts left me disappointed in people in general.

[Marla Nayer · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is amazing what gets said in court. While most of these are likely not verbatim, many have the actual court case reference. Some lawyers and judges are quite witty, some are off their rocker. Witnesses can be either as well, or just downright nutty. Even jurors have their moments. Defendants don’t always defend themselves. Expert witnesses are not always so expert (though some are very clever when dealing with irritating lawyers). And evidence isn’t always what it seems. We had lots of chuckles.

[Baobab · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fun read containing a number of amusing cartoons and excerpts from actual trials and legal processes that are for the most part very funny. There were a few I didn't understand, but then I'm not a lawyer, so perhaps that is to be expected.

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of these had me cracking up--especially the titles of the little blurbs. Sorry to admit, by page 38 I was exhausted reading all the legalese. Drawings were great.

[Julianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very funny!

[Doina Condrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most of it was funny. Some of them I got tired of reading lol It was just really silly fun though...I enjoyed it.

[Hayley Edwards · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one wasn't as funny as I was expecting it to be, I also found it hard to follow and at many points hard to understand.

[Charli Fulton · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mildly amusing excerpts from trial transcripts and other court proceedings. The book was worth finishing, but just barely.

[Regan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute read -- some of the quotes didn't make sense -- out of context. But I enjoyed it.

[Michael Fortin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some funny passages, but if your not familiar with court jargon, keep your google search close .

[Beverly Hollandbeck · Rating 2 out of 5]

What the subtitle labels as "absurdly funny" was to me mildly amusing on occasion.

[Tom · Rating 1 out of 5]

Did Not Finish. I guess you either had to work at a courthouse or be a criminal in order to think the book was funny. Never mind, absurdly funny.

[Lora Shouse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Law and Disorder is a collection of short vignettes from court proceedings that are meant to be funny. I believe some come from transcripts of court records or other court documents, while others appear to be incidents reported by some observers.

Some of them are, in fact, hilariously funny. Others are sort of funny to mildly amusing. I suspect that many would be funnier if I knew more about courts and legal proceedings in general; as it is, they go right over my head. I am guessing that others would be funnier if you were there, or knew the people involved.

A few of the incidents sort of worried me though, mostly ones involving judges. Most of the few judges I have had any contact with seem to have been intelligent, serious people. But these two or three cases appeared to show the judges in a bad light as if they were stupid or something. Again, I am assuming that this is mostly due to my unfamiliarity with the ins and outs of the legal system, or else that it is a case where the situation is one where you had to be there to understand it. But I found the questionable parts of the judges’ behavior unsettling.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good for a few laughs.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won this book through a Goodreads giveaway.

I had read one of the previous books in this series, Disorder in the Court. Mr. Sevilla collects actual court transcripts that range from mildly amusing to the outrageously funny.

This newest compilation of court transcripts is divided in sections by the participants of a case: judge, jurors, defendants, district attorneys, and defense lawyers.

Most of the excerpts are very short, many only a few sentences. There are some that are longer, and a few take up a couple of pages.

Most of my legal training consists of serving on jury duty twice and old television shows. There are some terms that I'm not familiar with, especially the ones it Latin, so therefore I didn't get the joke. Some of the humor came from court reporters mishearing or misspelling homonyms -- I didn't find these as funny.

But there were a couple that were really hilarious.

This book is good for a light read, and an interesting view of how our legal system can have unintended, yet funny, consequences.

[Sarina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Firstly, I would like to say that I won an ARC of this book through a giveaway, and it had some typos. A bit annoying, but understandable.

This book was a quick read (192 pages) and far from what I expected. Most of it is in form of conversations between two court members, and each tidbit of humor is contributed by a reader. Some of it was vulgar (do not read if you are easily offended), and a lot of it was consisted of very poor comedic attempts. Speaking for myself, as I don't laugh very easily, it was easy to spot the part that was intended to be funny, and it wasn't, if that makes sense. While this book might be the cause of a good Leigh for other people, I myself didn't like it very much. Good try, though, Charles Sevilla.

[Ailani Bonilla · Rating 1 out of 5]

I thought the book "Law and Disorder" wasn't what I expected it would be because it wasn't that funny to me. All it talked about were stories that happened in the court that were so called "hilarious". For example how is making marijuana in your bathroom without anyone noticing funny, because I think its ridiculous. Another thing about the book I didn't like is that the stories inside were shorter than I expected because I thought each story would be a few pages long, but no. Each story was at least two paragraphs to two whole pages long. For a 229 page book you'd expect at least a three page story to a five page story long. I don't recommend this book to anybody at all.

[Natasha · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am sorely disappointed in this book. It seems that the author has combed the bottoms of the barrels in finding things that are even slightly humorous to put into his third book.

I was looking forward to more of what the front covers says would be 'absurdly funny moments from the courts; - unfortunately I did not get that.

It seemed to me that only one third of the direct quotes were even slightly humorous. What a shame to have wasted a couple of hours on this book - the only redeeming quality is that it is a fast read due to the very nature of the subject matter.

[Jack · Rating 2 out of 5]

I won this book through the 'First-Reads' giveaway program.

This book wasn't really what I was expecting, I was hoping for chapter-length funny stories from the courts, instead, the stories are more twitter-length. There were some funny parts, and I think this is would be a good toilet book in the best sense of the word -- read it real quick when you're sitting on the loo with nothing better to do. I enjoyed the book, not sure if I would recommend it though.

[Will · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection of incidents from the author's "Great Moments in Courtroom History" column collects the highlights, or lowlights, of performances by defendants, prosecutors, counsel, judges, jurymen, and witnesses. Opinion may differ on whether they are truly inimitable, but it would be unwise to try to imitate them when the occasion serves.

[Beverly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very funny collection of the absurd statements that crop up in court documents. I read about this book on Goodreads Giveaways, but didn'the win a copy. This would make a great gift to anyone with a little legal background.

[Alice · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won this book from a Goodreads giveaway, and I found parts of the book to be quite fun to read. It does take a bit to make me interested and to laugh. Some parts did make me chuckle, which is why I gave the book a three star rating!

[Kim Clancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short clips and stories of Law and Disorder as the title suggests. Good for taking with when you have appointments because it is easy to put down in between the stories. Made me laugh out loud many times.

[Al Menaster · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a collection of Chuck Sevilla's Great Moments in Courtroom History, many absurd and hilarious courtroom anecdotes.

[Tessa in Mid-Michigan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of funnies, but lots of cynical ouches, too. Sad.

[joy *the clean-reader extraordinaire* · Rating 2 out of 5]

not so funny, not even too absurd.

[Tricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very funny! Those in the legal field will especially enjoy and appreciate this compilation of hysterical court records.

[Utena · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not entirely as funny as I had hoped but it was still a good read.

[literaryaura]

I'm sure most people have received a forward of an email that had bits from this book. I loved that email, and always find myself laughing at those crazy moments whenever I come across it again.

So I thought I would give this book a try, when I finally found it. Unfortunately the language in the book has a lot of 'legal speech', and a lot of it flew over my head. When I could figure out what was being said, it had long since stopped being funny.

The author has copied straight from courtroom transcripts. I guess so that it doesn't seem as though he's making stuff up. However in this case, I think he should have changed the language, and make it more legible for those not fluent in 'legal speech'.