Familiar names in opinions

As a part of our job duties here at Indiana Lawyer, we read a lot of court opinions. From time to time, a familiar name will catch our attention on an opinion that we may otherwise have skipped. Curious if we really know one of the parties involved, we read it. Sometimes our suspicions are confirmed, but usually it just happens to be someone we don’t know who has the same name.


How often do you read an opinion because you think you may know the person involved in the case? Are you curious to find out if it really is your sister’s best friend from college who is appealing a theft conviction, or that your neighbor’s son was convicted of dealing methamphetamine? How often does it turn out that you know the person involved?

A post yesterday on Indianapolis Business Journal’s NewsTalk blog regarding Hall Render continuously falling short of being name the largest health care law firm in the nation may be of interest to our readers. In case you didn’t know, the Indianapolis Business Journal and Indiana Lawyer are both owned by IBJ Media.