Return of the Court Jesters: By Popular Demand More of the Funniest Stories from Canada's Courts

Greg Turko is a policy analyst at the Ontario Ministry of Colleges and
Universities.

Judges, lawyers, and their clients are generally not seen as fun people.
In this book, MacDonald sets out, yet again, to prove this perception
wrong. Some lawyers, judges, and other courtroom inhabitants do,
apparently, just wanna have fun.

This book, the third in a series, is a collection of vignettes that
highlight the intended and unintended humor in legal proceedings. The
situations range from very funny to disquieting to pathetic, depending
upon individual taste. Some of the incidents sound suspiciously
apocryphal, though this is unsubstantiated, circumstantial speculation.
Anyone who, in a courtroom, replies “Cheeseburger and fries!” in
response to a call for order, or who says to a judge “this is no lady:
this is my wife,” as the book quotes, should be dealt with harshly for
being in possession of clichés dangerous to the public good.

The book appears to have two purposes: first, to entertain readers with
humorous anecdotes, and second, to acknowledge a host of judges and
lawyers. Thus, any number of “crusty but sensible” or “life of the
party” individuals are cited, which gives the introduction to many
stories a certain telethon quality.

The popularity of this series with both readers and contributors
testifies that many people find courtroom anecdotes irresistible.