Today's DJ has SF Judge Curtis Karnow in
Dangerous Fictions that makes a nice companion piece to Justice Hoffstadt's piece.
Legal fictions are problematic because, as Justice Hoffstadt implies, we're in the truth-finding business. These fictions are dangerous for judges, because judges believe the little stories they tell themselves, and the result is great mischief. And the public, which we serve, has no idea what we're talking about.
when judges believe their own magic and use extrapolated, perhaps metaphorical meanings as if they were real, the result can be peculiar. It may not be at all in accord with what the people, for whom all the laws are written and for whom we work, think is true.
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