Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
Yeah but even then, the best practice is to say absolutely nothing, take down notes, and (hopefully) win on appeal, because 999 out of 1000 times that's better than making a scene
The problem with that is that - I don't know how the law works in real life, but this fic has established multiple times that you have to make objections to "preserve the issue for appeal". I don't know how that can happen if the judge can strike whatever he wants from the record and threaten to hold you in contempt if you object, but it does make me wonder why judges haven't figured out this One Weird Trick To Prevent Any Issues From Being Raised In Appeals in real life.
 
The record only exists for juries. If appeals are done for the sake of judicial misconduct stuff that is not on the record but is in the memory of court officials, like, say, a court stenographer, it's still something that will matter. And making the job of appeals judges harder is probably not a good idea as a trial judge.
 
Bold of you to make a personal assumption about what someone else is or is not on the internet. 😒

As to the rest, I agree, the firm could, and likely would, do everything you outlined if it went to trial. (In fact, it's even possible they would manufacture evidence and or get fake personal testimonies of things she didn't do to go along with it.)

You were arguing the exact opposite of what you're now saying over multiple posts, which makes me greatly doubt that you were thinking about the cost-benefit and what a trial on this issue might look like.

It's a TRAP!

That "Could" is putting the onus of changing firms onto the Clients, which basically means she will be left with almost nobody.

As opposed to her clients going with her by default with the "opt out" being on them.

This is especially relevant given, unless I missed something which I might have, they don't seem to be giving her two weeks notice or anything to actually call up those clients and secure their agreement's. Which is important, because if she doesn't secure those agreements before she no longer officially works for "XXX Lawfirm" there's every chance they might try and argue they aren't her clients anymore so it doesn't apply.

As to the rest, can't say for sure since I am not sure when the current New York ruling on Non-Compete's and the likes officially hit the books.

Yup.

And like a descrimination suit, such a thing would be doom for the law firm, even if only via the very real possibility now of her getting Captain America as a character witness.
 
Anyways, the fun thing about St. John's case on appeal is that it might be one of those briefs which involves a whole lot of incredibly obscure legal research.

We know magic exists and is a big deal in Marvel (in general). We know that these magicians existed and were active hundreds of years ago. And we know that even in the real world there were a lot of things like witch trials and stuff. So it wouldn't be the strangest leap of logic for a lawyer to go "well, 17th century court cases from England discussing the plight of men and women gifted with mysterious and exceptional powers that defy scientific understanding might be usable in a 20th century court to explain how the court should address 20th century men and women gifted with mysterious and exceptional powers" and Antonin Scalia immediately pops a boner and doesn't know why.

I wouldn't be surprised if there were precedents people could pick from extremely obscure 17th century law that would have covered similar situations, although I suspect that perhaps Witchcraft Law is not very favorable to a mutant defendant even ignoring the connotations, so it's probably going to be the prosecutor's office gleefully citing 17th century precedent.
 
I wouldn't be surprised if there were precedents people could pick from extremely obscure 17th century law that would have covered similar situations, although I suspect that perhaps Witchcraft Law is not very favorable to a mutant defendant even ignoring the connotations, so it's probably going to be the prosecutor's office gleefully citing 17th century precedent.

Complicated by the fact that a lot of the witch trials were not...actually trials? Many 'Witch Hunters' had no official legal authority whatsoever, and the trials and punishments that followed frequently ran the range from Charivari to straight up lynching.
 
Complicated by the fact that a lot of the witch trials were not...actually trials? Many 'Witch Hunters' had no official legal authority whatsoever, and the trials and punishments that followed frequently ran the range from Charivari to straight up lynching.

I know most of them weren't actually trials in real life, but given that magic was and is a known historical thing in Marvel comics, in this situation there likely would have been actual legal precedents on how to deal with magicians.
 
Anyways, the fun thing about St. John's case on appeal is that it might be one of those briefs which involves a whole lot of incredibly obscure legal research.

We know magic exists and is a big deal in Marvel (in general). We know that these magicians existed and were active hundreds of years ago. And we know that even in the real world there were a lot of things like witch trials and stuff. So it wouldn't be the strangest leap of logic for a lawyer to go "well, 17th century court cases from England discussing the plight of men and women gifted with mysterious and exceptional powers that defy scientific understanding might be usable in a 20th century court to explain how the court should address 20th century men and women gifted with mysterious and exceptional powers" and Antonin Scalia immediately pops a boner and doesn't know why.

I wouldn't be surprised if there were precedents people could pick from extremely obscure 17th century law that would have covered similar situations, although I suspect that perhaps Witchcraft Law is not very favorable to a mutant defendant even ignoring the connotations, so it's probably going to be the prosecutor's office gleefully citing 17th century precedent.
One of the more interesting "recent" cases I can think for Noa would probably be Spiritual Psychic Science Church of Truth v City of Azusa. (Which actually has some interesting bits on the constitutional right of free expression in concerns to the use of supernatural powers.)
 


Hmm, actually, reread that carefully. The law (passed in 1735, and repealed in 1951) technically doesn't make witchcraft illegal. What it actually makes illegal is claiming that someone is a witch (including yourself). Yes, it makes it illegal for you to go around calling yourself a witch or wizard, and claiming to cast magic, but it also makes it illegal to accuse old lady Derwent down the road of being a witch, or telling people that you saw her vanishing the contents of her privy with the wave of a stick.

In other words, it's an almost perfect muggle counterpart to the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy (1692), to help quell rumours spread by sightings of careless witches and wizards. :p
 
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Honestly, I expect a call form JJJ for a position as a legal advisor/expert for his newspaper. This sucks, but this story doesn't look like it's gonna devolve into a constant "then things got worse" story. I hate those.
 
Honestly, I expect a call form JJJ for a position as a legal advisor/expert for his newspaper. This sucks, but this story doesn't look like it's gonna devolve into a constant "then things got worse" story. I hate those.
Nah, this is her low-point. Losing her first major mutant-related case, being outed as a mutant herself, and getting fired from her job at a major law firm. Things can only get better from here: a lot of important people are on her side and calling attention to the bullshit behind the trial, she has enough money to start her own (small) law practice thanks to her severance package and stocks in Stark Industries, and now that everyone knows she's a mutant (with a mutation that doesn't make her particularly threatening or dangerous to anyone) she doesn't have anything to hide in that regard.
 
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Nah, this is her low-point. Losing her first major mutant-related case, being outed as a mutant herself, and getting fired from her job at a major law firm. Things can only get better from here: a lot of important people are on her side and calling attention to the bullshit behind the trial, she has enough money to start her own (small) law practice thanks to her severance package and stocks in Stark Industries, and now that everyone knows she's a mutant (specifically one that doesn't make her particularly threatening or dangerous to anyone) she doesn't have anything to hide in that regard.
She can also probably sell her story to Hollywood for a couple hundred thousand in cash and executive producer credits.
 
She can also probably sell her story to Hollywood for a couple hundred thousand in cash and executive producer credits.
Not yet, things are too anti-mutant right now for a Hollywood movie to be made that portrays them in a positive light. The most she's going to get for at least a decade is a cheap tv movie, and even then they'll be lucky to find anyone to sponsor or air it.
 
Honestly, I expect a call form JJJ for a position as a legal advisor/expert for his newspaper. This sucks, but this story doesn't look like it's gonna devolve into a constant "then things got worse" story. I hate those.
It's not going to devolve into a constant "it gets worse". The next arc ends on a very, VERY big upswing.

After all… I have the last line of the first arc to pay off!
 
Don't forget that the voters are now going to be terrified; these schmucks called down a powerful mutant terrorist on them. If they get rid of these two schmucks and maybe get the mutant kid to go somewhere else, maybe Magneto will go away.
If I remember my plot right, while Magneto already had his first skirmishes with the x-man he isn't yet known as a mutant terrorist by the population
 
Would we see prosecution good guys in the future arcs?
Maybe, some more legally and morally murky and uncertain case (Magneto tends to attract those)?

I feel, like in legal dramas there are distinct popular tropes, that are easy to fall into, even if everything else exceptionally (and sadly) realistic and detailed.
 
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Would we see prosecution good guys in the future arcs?
Maybe, some more legally and morally murky and uncertain case (Magneto tends to attract those)?

I feel, like in legal dramas there are distinct popular tropes, that are easy to fall into, even if everything else exceptionally (and sadly) realistic and detailed.
Yes. There is an arc planned where Noa actually works directly alongside the prosecution, because her client is the star witness in the prosecution's case. For which her client is receiving immunity.

And if you think you don't need a lawyer to make that kind of negotiation, then I've got a bridge to sell you in Brooklyn.

P.S: the prosecutor she works with is a known figure in Marvel.
 
Yes. There is an arc planned where Noa actually works directly alongside the prosecution, because her client is the star witness in the prosecution's case. For which her client is receiving immunity.

And if you think you don't need a lawyer to make that kind of negotiation, then I've got a bridge to sell you in Brooklyn.

P.S: the prosecutor she works with is a known figure in Marvel.

With the sheer amount of characters that are active in this marvel universe you are using that really doesnt narrow it down much
 
I expect that Noa's former boss will remain a contact she can call on. He doesn't want to fire her but the firm will loose important clients if she doesn't leave. Nothing says he won't be giving her a glowing reference. She's loosing her job, keeping on good terms with her old boss is making the best of a bad situation.
Him bitching making small talk about having to let her go to his 'friends' would help her quite a bit. She's in for an uphill battle she needs all the help she can get.

I hope the jury feel really bad after this. It was all but obvious that this was a railroading.
 
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