Talk:Legal technicality

It should be noted that legal technicalities, while helping defendants, often hinder the unjustly imprisoned. The importance of legal technicalities is that they tend to preserve the status quo - ie defendant is acquitted and convicted stay in jail. The ultimate in legal technicality has to be Justice Sandra O'Connors statement that "innocence is not a constitutional bar to execution." —Preceding unsigned comment added by Badtypist (talk • contribs) 22:10, 15 February 2006

Where in the world did you get that statement from? It sounds like you completely misread her concurrence in Herrera v. Collins (1993) [1] (which I remembered vaguely from Crim Pro class in law school). O'Connor was not focusing on the law like Rehnquist in his majority opinion; she was focused on showing that the evidence overwhelmingly demonstrated that Herrera was guilty. O'Connor wrote at page 421 that "The record makes it abundantly clear that petitioner is not somehow the future victim of simple murder . . . but instead himself [is] the established perpetrator of two brutal and tragic ones." --Coolcaesar 07:38, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

Tags placed in May 2006

The following introductory sentence, and also some other aspects of this article, will need to be replaced with something more specific, objective and informative...Kenosis 18:43, 22 May 2006 (UTC)

"The term legal technicality refers to the technical niceties and exactitudes of legal procedure, which is divided into criminal procedure and civil procedure. The term technicality is actually not a term of art in the law (fish describing water) and is rarely used by lawyers, unless they are trying to explain legal procedure to lay clients."...18:43, 22 May 2006 (UTC)

Most of this paragraph has been removed. Comments/reasons: "technical niceties"? is not a definition but a redundant phrasing of "legal technicalities." "Fish describing water" what on earth does that mean? The statements "rarely used by lawyers" and "unless they are trying to explain legal procedure to lay clients" are unsourced and speculative.... Kenosis 02:55, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

Further removal of incorrect material

I have removed the following sentence, because it is incorrect. The term "legal technicalities" unfortunately does not refer merely to procedural technicalities, but all technicalities in the law, both [[substantive law}substantive]] and procedural. ... Kenosis 03:16, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

”Defenses based on technicalities are known as "procedural defenses.""03:17, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

(1)Say an old business associate takes you (or a friend or relative of yours) to court claiming that in 1956 a contract was broken and you owe them money for it. You assert the procedural defenses of laches and expiration of the statute of limitations, and the judge dismisses the case. The old business associate now goes to the press and says “it was dismissed on a legal technicality.” Are you convinced that the assertion of procedural defenses in this case are “legal technicalities”?

(2)Say you are arrested, hauled off to jail, not permitted a phone call, and not informed of what the charges are against you. Finally you get to court two years later and tell your story through your court appointed attorney who just met you, and are fortunate enough to have a ‘’competent’’ attorney who, with evidence and argument, persuades the judge that your version of events is factually correct. Note that all your arguments here are “procedural defenses”. The judge releases you. Have you gotten off on “legal technicalities”? ... Kenosis 04:36, 23 May 2006 (UTC)

• • Pargraph 2, Sentence 2: “It is often used in a pejorative sense to denote aspects of legal procedure which, if not attended to or followed, can change the outcome of a legal proceeding in ways seemingly contrary to the interests of justice.” ... 04:36, 23 May 2006 (UTC)

Note the use of the words “seemingly contrary to justice” as they are very telling of what is meant when people use the words “legal technicality” in public discourse. What the Wikipedia article on Legal technicality is saying is, in effect, that when people don’t agree with the outcome, they derisively refer to the cause of the “unjust” outcome as “based on a legal technicality” or “because of a legal technicality”. Meanwhile, the opposing party goes to the press and says “Thank God justice was done.” ... Kenosis 04:36, 23 May 2006 (UTC)

I have removed this sentence just above and replaced it with something that may reasonably reflect reality of colloquial usage... Kenosis 03:36, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

I have also removed this brief paragraph, because it is speculative and incorrect: :"In almost every case, well-established technical aspects of legal procedure have been developed and reinforced in a long tradition of appellate court decisions; usually such doctrines arise because of a perceived need to protect the rights of a specific class of persons who might otherwise suffer injustice at the hands of the legal system." ... Kenosis 03:53, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

Fact is, numerous "legal technicalities", indeed most of them, arise out of legislative bodies. And, every interest group uses the argument that the rights of that specific class of "persons" or corporations too "might otherwise suffer injustice" if their preferred legislation is not passed. Doesn't hurt to back up the request for preferred legislation with extra voting blocks or other form of favor to the legislators either... Kenosis 03:53, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

Examples of actual legal usage of the informal phrase "legal technicality"

To illustrate that the words "legal technicality have no definition ofter than that of their face value ("technicalities in law" or "technicalities of law"), the U.S. Supreme Court's use of the informal phrase "legal technicalities" over the last century (13 times minus two duplicates and one quote from a newspaper = 10 times) are as follows. All of them are used in a casual, non-definitional way to refer to the idea of merely "complexities or technical aspects of the law"... Kenosis 05:14, 23 May 2006 (UTC)

• • (1) “The function of counsel as a guide through complex legal technicalities long has been recognized by this Court.” (U.S. v. Ash, 1973)
  • (2) ”Furthermore, during the federal habeas corpus hearing Davis showed his awareness of legal technicalities.”(footnote in Davis v. North Carolina, 1966)
  • (3) ”If recovery were denied in this case, the railroads, by the simple expedient of doing each other's work, could tie their employees up in legal technicalities over the proper railroad to sue for injuries and perhaps remove from coverage of the Act a significant area of railroad activity.”(Shenker v. Baltimore and Ohio R.Co., 1963)
  • (4) “Admiralty practice, which has served as the origin of much of our modern federal procedure, should not be tied to the mast of legal technicalities it has been the forerunner in eliminating from other federal practices." British Transport Comm'n v. United States, 354 U.S. 129, 139 .” (CONTINENTAL GRAIN CO. v. BARGE FBL-585, 1960)
  • (5) Redundant quote:“Admiralty practice, which has served as the origin of much of our modern federal procedure, should not be tied to the mast of legal technicalities it has been the forerunner in eliminating from other federal practices." (British Transport Comm'n v. United States, 1957).
  • (6) “When the Congress deliberates over this problem, as it often has, it does not worry about the passing of title or other legal technicalities.” (KERN-LIMERICK, INC. ET AL. v. SCURLOCK, 1954)
  • (7) “by substituting practical, business conceptions for the previous hairsplitting legal technicalities encrusted upon the 'found'-'present'-'carrying-on-business' sequence, the Court yielded to and made effective Congress' remedial purpose.” (UNITED STATES V. NATIONAL CITY LINES, 1948)
  • (8) Redundant quote: “Thus, by substituting practical, business conceptions for the previous hairsplitting legal technicalities encrusted upon the 'found'- 'present'-' carrying-on-business' sequence, the Court yielded to and made effective Congress' remedial purpose. (U.S. V. SCOPHONY CORP. OF AMERICA, 1948)
  • (9) “Legal technicalities doubtless afford justification for our pretense of ignoring plain facts before us, facts upon which a man's very life or liberty conceivably could depend.” (CARTER v. PEOPLE OF STATE OF ILLINOIS, 1946)
  • (10) “We shall assume that the statement, 'judicial instance and interpretative procedure ... even go out to find, every possible technicalit of the law to protect the defendant ... and nullify prosecution,' refers to the quashing of the rape indictments as well as other condemned steps. The comment of the last two paragraphs evidently includes these dismissals as so-called legal technicalities.” (PENNEKAMP v. STATE OF FLA., 1946)
  • (11) “Yet if legal technicalities rather than practical considerations are to decide that question it should be noted that the defendants were payee-indorsers of the checks.” (KANN v. U.S., 1944)
  • (12) “After the making of the consent decree and the deposit of the money in court, the situation of this case was substantially that of an interpleader suit after the making of a decree for interpleader and the dismissal of the stakeholder from the cause, with the issue as between the conflicting claimants limited by stipulation to the determination of the amount 'justly due' from the one to the other. That question, of course, was and is to be decided according to the equities of the claimants as between themselves, without regard to legal technicalities.” (MCGOWAN v. PARISH, 1915)
  • (13) “In the News, published the evening of March 19, there was an editorial reviewing the local proceedings, which concluded: 'All of this delay is aggravating to the community. The people of Chattanooga believe that Johnson is guilty, and that he ought to suffer the penalty of the law as speedily as possible. If by legal technicality the case is prolonged and the culprit finally escapes, there will be no use to plead with a mob here if another such crime is committed. Such delays are largely responsible for mob violence all over the country.'”(U.S. v. SHIPP, 1909)

The last use is the kicker here, as it is a quote from a newspaper. All these uses of legal technicalities by the Supreme Court refer to only one thing, which is in informal reference to "technicalities of the law” or “anything in the law that is highly technical” including substantive law, procedural law--everything technical. That is properly the subject of the article on law, and not the subject of a separate article on legal technicalities I would think. ... Kenosis 05:14, 23 May 2006 (UTC)

Link to German entry

The link to the German entry for "Rechtsförmlichkeit" or "Legistik" is wrong. The German entry describes the art of writing laws, how they have to be structured, etc. It does not describe "Legal technicyalities". Ds77 (talk) 07:48, 15 March 2013 (UTC)