Today's DJ profiles 2/2's Justice Brian Hoffstadt in
No Joker: Fellow jurists think highly of Justice Brian Hoffstadt's scholarship and knowledge of the law. [The print version title is
Valuable Resource] The DJ last profiled him when he was a superior court judge in July 2011. He has written over 50 legal articles and is the author of California Criminal Discovery.
The profile starts off by asserting that he has an "active imagination" and "looks forward to the day he can return to his unpublished fiction novels." It then notes that he has an "aggressive," "first-to-ounce," yet "far from off-putting" approach at oral argument: "
At a random session of oral arguments in July, Hoffstadt allowed
an average of 20 seconds to elapse before engaging attorneys with questions
about the record."
"What I try to do is to focus them on the things that are
bothering or concerning me. Then, you’ll notice, I step back
and let them talk about whatever they want, but I want to make sure that I have
the opportunity to get the benefit of their insight on the issues that I think
are the turning points of the case.” “I would say probably half of the time I will go back and make
some substantive changes to the opinion.” “I can’t give a percentage
how often it changes the result, but it oftentimes changes the rationale or the
reasoning."
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