Good Lawyer/Bad Lawyer. David Nuttall. Hancock House. $19.95 Why do lawyers write books? Some, like former L.A. Prosecutor Vincent “Helter Skelter” Bugliosi, ‘clearly do it for the same reason they practice law: “the relentless quest for wealth, fame and power,” as West Vancouver awyer David Nuttall puts it in the preface to this account of some of the cases he handled in three decades before the bar. Others, like Nuttall himself, write because every single day of their professional lives has been spent dealing with people who go before the courts seeking “jus- tice” and too often find only The Law as it appears in Franz Kafka’s The Trial. Now retired, Nuttal chose to tell these particular tales because they document cases that reveal the human heart of the legal sys- tem; “legal battles that ended as they should have because some- body cared. Somebody lifted a finger to see that justice was done: sometimes it was the judge, sometimes the jury, some - times the lawyer. Usually it was the combination of all three.” ~~ Though Nuttall practiced all kinds of law in his thirty year career, these stories mostly offer glimpses into the kind of lives you encounter when you turn over_a rock. (And those are just the lawyers!...But seriously..) ole ARB: 0. SKLAR PEPPLER : REDUCE i Sofas By: “SKLAR-PEPPLER, KLAUSNER, STYLECRAFT, BENCHCRAFT, CAMPIO, ENGLAND CORSAIR, MASTERCRAFT, STANTON Bedrooms & Dining Rooms By: ASHLEY, MILLENIUM, (IDEAL, ARCESE BROS.,: : DYNASTY WOOD, WILD ~ _ ROSE, DAVELUYVILLE, FILBAR °° Bedding By Famous Brands: SEALY, SERTA & - POSTURE BEAUTY Coffee Tables & Accessories By: HAMILTON & SPILL, ARGENT, BRASS BAZAAR, MAGNUSSEN, ASHLEY SINGLE 2 PCE: $279 DOUBLE 2 PCE, 5289. QUEEN 2 PCE. °29S MING SZE ALSO AVAILABLE WED, 10-9 ¢ THURS, 10.9 FRU, 109 « SAT. 9.6. RNC Mp fenive e A TH John Moore BOOK REVIEW Good lawyers and bad lawyers, fair judges and prejudiced court- room martinets, and a kaleido- scope of Va:couver's criminal culture, some of whom are not as bad as they seem, while others are much worse; he’s seen them all. It’s not just the fact that most of the characters, including the lawyers and judges, get exactly what they deserve that makes these unofficial case histories such a satisfying read. Nuttall also has a perfect ear for the nuances of necessarily sly humour than enliven exchanges between lawyers, judges and wit- nesses, He is currently working ona novel. If it’s a “courtroom drama”, expect great things. He’s put in some practice at the basic craft of fiction already, since he was obliged to “change the names to protect the innocent” (and the guilty, who can still sue), but he’s a bit self-conscious in the third person. Writing in the first person, as SUN, 115 *799 UNBELIEVABLE! | Green or Black he does in the first and last sto- ries, he’s a natural narrator who only needs to imagine an alter- ego “I” for himself. It shouldn't be too difficult, since he’s had thirty years of practice at that, too. I’ve met Mr. Nuttall a number of times over the last decade or so, {under circumstances that are none of your business), and he always seems such an amiable, venerous-hearted big teddy bear of a guy, you can hardly believe he’s anybudy’s legal counsel. “A lot of lawyers and some judges inave made that mistake,” another lawyer once told me, “ But going into court against him is like walking into a bear-pit with a grizzly whose lunch is late.” Like the grizzly, he’s almost an anachronism.. Nuttall subscribes to rather old-fashioned notions like humanistic restraint, genuine tol- erance, “fair play” and a higher devotion to notoriously hard to define concepts like “truth” and “justice” which are being sup- planted by a system which reduces the Law to a kind of semantic game played by “legal technicians” — in which a fly- speck of punctuation decides whether you walk or do time as Her Majesty’s guest. The ‘fish or cut bait’ question is: who would you want standing beside you on your Day in Court? 430,000 FY, OF INVENTORY j PERSGNAL SHOPPING ONLY AU TREMENDOUS Si 20ly. POSTUREPEDIC HEADQUARTERS + POSTUREPEDIC SINGLE 2 PCE. °299 DOUBLE 2 PCE. $398 QUEEN 2 PCE. 5499 KING S@E ALSO AVAILABLE RASS & GLASS meee ALL | THREE PIECES 569 Keep your tires properly inflated. You'll increase #7 the life of the tires. You'll save on fuel and lower gu 4y harmful emissions. 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