Thomas v. Poff’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

4 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 4 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “If the law and the justice system were administered without rules, we would have adj udication at the whim of the adjudicators, a miasma which even the most ill-disciplined could not tolerate. The strength of our legal system comes largely from the fact that it is a system, and to refuse to require order in the manner of reaching fair dispositions of disputes would be to kick aside a major peg of the law’s contribution to our civilization. True, our rules are complex, and perhaps too much so for lay persons. Thus we have a need for lawyers who are familiar with and able to apply them. In our view the “justice” which the appellant’s counsel insists his clients are being denied requires evenhanded adherence to procedural requirements. Whimsical departures from them in the service of the needs of those who refuse to abide by the rules would do ultimate and universal disservice to the cause of fairness for all.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Wilkinson v. Amos Enderlin Contracting Co.