Vocabulary notes

to draft	составлять (проект)
ponderous	увесистый, тяжеловесный
to befuddle	сбивать с толку
footnote	сноска, примечание
palaver	пустая болтовня, треп
to crank out	зд. выдавать
to entertain	принять на рассмотрение
palimony	вид содержания, выплачиваемый одному из супругов после развода (обычно, женщине)
punitive damages	возмещение убытков по решению суда
egregious	вопиющий

Task 3. Read the text again and make sure you know all underlined parts of the text. Give their Russian equivalents

Task 4. Answer the following questions:

1. What is main idea of this text?

2. Why were judges once respected?

3. Who helps judges with legal research and drafting opinions?

4. What was the volume of legal palaver once limited by?

5. What makes it impossible to require arbitration in personal-injury matters and some other cases?

6. In what cases can arbitration replace court litigation?

7. What is the role of market forces in moderating some of the legal system's difficulties?

Task 5. Read the statements. Agree or disagree with them. Agreement or disagreement should be followed by some comment

1. Judges were never respected.

2. Nobody helps judges with legal research and drafting opinions.

3. Appellate judges write short opinions.

4. The volume of legal palaver used to have some limitations.

5. Arbitration is a way of resolving disputes under most major commercial contracts and labor agreements.

6. Arbitration can replace courts in personal-injury matters.

7. Punitive damages should be abolished in all cases.

8. Only courts and lawyers are able to solve human disagreements.

Task 6. Ask questions to which the following statements are the answers:

1. Opinions are much more lengthy and ponderous than those of a generation or two ago.

2. A footnote ran on for four pages.

3. Judges are forced to read longer briefs.

4. Because the Constitu­tion guarantees the right to a jury trial.

5. Nearly all lawsuits are settled by judges in England.

6. Punitive damages hold out the hope of striking it rich.

7. Because the courts are overloaded.

8. Lawyers should be subsidized only with money from their clients.

Task 7. Explain in English what the words and word combinations mean. Use them in your own sentences

Appellate judges, to draft opinions, ponderous, legal palaver, carbon paper, palimony, arbitration, em­ployment discrimination, incentives, to strike it rich, to keep in reign, to become salaried, alternative mechanisms, to settle disputes, to entertain a dispute, to let nature take its course.

Task 8. Practice the speech patterns given below. Make up two sentences of your own on each pattern

1. Appellate judges write opinions that are much more lengthy and ponderous than those of a generation or two ago. Of course, get-tough policies raise ques­tions other than that of efficacy. His fingerprints were routinely sent to Washington, where the FBI spotted them as those of Dwight Armstrong, a second fugitive in the Wisconsin bombing. Angry constituents bombarded my office and those of other lawmakers with phone calls and letters.

2. When the law provides a perfectly clear option (marriage) for arrang­ing mutual obligations, why should courts feel free to create new ones? Why should Americans be so punitive in their attitude to criminals?

3. If there are too many lawyers, we can stop subsidizing them with money from sources other than their clients, and let nature take its course. Finally, as a country — and as individual citizens — we need to stop taking everything to court

4. If family, church, school, even bureaus of government themselves don't try harder to solve more human disagreements on their own, no number of courts and lawyers will be able to do it for them. Are you sure you can do it on your own?

5. The volume of legal palaver was once limited by how many sheets of carbon paper would fit in the typewriter, or how much the client would pay to have the attorneys’ deathless prose printed. All he wants is to have his case disposed of as soon as possible.

6. . Such devices may help middle-class citizens resolve disputes. Crime imposes huge costs on the country and has helped turn parts of American inner cities into nightmares of violence. The complainant was grateful to the lawyer for helping him win his case.

Task 9. Make the summary of the text. Use the key words and word combinations