Business Law

Remember “The Bucket List Bandit”? I did a little search on Standard.net and came up with more than 100 stories on the alleged bank robber.

The past week has left me in a somber mood. I was trying to write a column about how the law impacts us in our businesses and our lives, and all I could come up with is how flimsy our legal words are in the real world.

In my legal practice over the past 20-plus years, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard, “but it is illegal.” You have to instruct the woman with the protective order that, just because she has a piece of paper with a judge’s signature, it is very ineffective against a fist or a bullet.

Our laws are only as good as our citizens. The bombing in Boston brought this to the foreground. Just off the top of my head, the bombing would violate much of the criminal statutes relating to murder, mayhem and assault, numerous dangerous material regulations, RICO and hate-crime statutes and probably many more I haven’t even thought of yet.

All of those statutes, laws, threats of punishment and efforts to proactively stop a law violation were for naught, and people were killed and injured.

I perused the long list of bills approved this year by the Legislature and signed by the governor and came up with a couple of themes.

• Everything is solved by a pamphlet or a commission.

HB 115 makes amendments to Utah’s towing laws, so the law reads a little like a Mastercard ad:

Car boot for parking on private property with poor signage: $75. A copy of the grandiosely titled “Utah Consumer Bill of Rights Regarding Towing” telling you that $75 is the maximum you can be charged in a 24-hour period: No charge. The towing company is now required to take plastic: Priceless.

If anyone doubts the wisdom of the state constitutional limit of 45 days for the Utah legislative session, here is some math for you.

Our industrious and hardworking legislators averaged approval of a little more than 12 bills per calendar day — 72 a week. By the end of the session, 544 new bills had been passed to swell the contents of our state statutes. Only a very few of these proposed new laws will ever be discussed by the general public.

This influx of new laws creates a feeling of mixed emotion in me.

The Standard-Examiner received the following letter to the editor:

Why can’t jurors ask questions of a defendant in Utah? It seems perfectly reasonable and logical to me. Whenever you see a blown trial where you see the defendant get away with a serious crime, the jurors often say that a particular issue or question was never addressed or answered. It seems to me that the evil cult of lawyers is reluctant to relinquish control to average people.

These three numbers — 38-15-1 — represent the number of people you need to pursuade to get a law passed in Utah — 38 members of the House of Representatives, 15 members of the Senate and one governor. I learned that seemingly small number sequence Tuesday at the Utah State Bar Day at the Legislature.