Word: writ
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...Judge Beer at least, the argument made eminent sense. He affirmed the judges' right to sue and also gave them everything that they had asked for. The plaintiffs won a writ of mandamus that will compel the county to provide for leven more probation officers, eight more clerks, and one judicial assistant at a combined cost in salaries of at least $193,000 a year. The order may become a major precedent. For judges elsewhere may decide that the way to get more staff is to challenge from the other side of the bench...
...possibility of a regal drama is lost amidst this ragged anthology of styles and postures. In theatrical tradition, the fortunes of king and queen were the human situation writ large. In Goldman's hands, the process is reversed; Henry and Eleanor are reduced to a TV-sized version of the sovereigns next door, their epic struggles shrunk to sitch-com squabbles, and their children mere refractions of their mean spirits...
...court. By contrast, Stephens had been a cooperative witness. His lawyers argued that there was no reason to believe that he would not testify; there had been no actual threats on his life. Taking the case to a Memphis Circuit Court, Gipson and Friedman won a plea for a writ of habeas corpus on the grounds that Stephens had been denied due process and that his bail was excessive...
...such contemporary traumas is that no one does much about them onscreen; the folks just sit around talking about their problems and drinking black coffee in the kitchen. The only time there is any live action in the typical soaper, it seems, is Friday. That's when the writ ers always slip in the "tease" that will lure the listeners back on Monday...
Dangerous Gamble. Jurors are not expected to buck directed verdicts. But in days gone by, they took more of a risk than did Solana. In 16th century England, the remote ancestor of today's directed verdict was called a writ of attaint; under it a judge could refuse to accept any jury verdict he did not like, no matter what the evidence. A new trial was then held, with a larger jury. If the new jury agreed with the judge, the original jurors could '"themselves be imprisoned and their wives and children thrust out of doors." That highhanded...