Day 5 of the MS Bar Convention brings the specific section meetings, alumni lunches and the family Beach Bash.
Sections meetings, i.e. Family Law section of the MS Bar, are used to elect new officers, report to the members and gain an additional CLE hour or two. This meeting is well attended by family law attorneys and chancellors and is not a stuffy meeting. Other sections have their meeting as well.
Next comes the alumni lunches. The various law schools have there lunch of generic banquet food and talk about how great things are going…never better. We persevere through it.
Friday afternoon brings on the Build-a-Bear Workshop. This is a GREAT benefit of the Bar. Hundreds of children descend to claim their bears, dogs, cats, bunnies and whatever the popular character-of-the-moment is. The animals are complimentary, the accessories are not. Good luck escaping without a suitcase of accessories.
Friday brings on the President’s reception. The newest installed bar president shakes hands and takes pictures with the member. There is music and h’ors doevures, somewhat of a repeat from Wednesday night, but still good and still fun. There’s usually a chocolate fountain that ends in a huge mess of cake pieces, strawberries and a few chocolate covered build-a-bears, accidently!
Friday night culminates in the Beach Bash. Glow necklaces are your admittance ticket for crab hunting, limbo and the coveted hula hoop contest. Prizes for the most, biggest and smallest crab insure everyone has a chance. Limbo includes children and adult categories. And the hula hoop contest rounds out the night. Usually 2-3 heats and 3-4 rounds. This isn’t just standing and hula hooping. It’s on one leg, now hop, squat down, turn around hula hooping.
The night culminates in a booming, echoing show of fireworks that would make any 4th of July jealous. They are shot off of the beach and because of the height of the buildings the sounds resonate. There is no early bed time on Friday night.
Matthew Thompson is a family law attorney in Mississippi and looks forward to Fridays at the Bar Convention. His daughter just might be the three-time reigning hula hoop champion as well.
Day 4 of the MS Bar convention starts with a bevy of competing breakfasts, but culminates in the most serious of games in the Sunshine State, BINGO.
• Christian Legal Society Prayer Breakfast, Fellows of the Young Lawyers, MS Chapter American Board of Trial Advocates Meeting, MS State Alumni all have Breakfasts, to name a few.
There are various judicial conferences throughout the day, but everything is wrapped up by 2:30 for the annual Hunger Games…aka BINGO!
BINGO Thursday is the most competitive event at the Convention, including the golf and tennis tourneys and the crab hunt. Hands down BINGO is the most serious.
Get there early as the large ballroom fills quickly. Dozens of 12-top tables span the room, with a plethora of prizes on the dais up front. Show up 5 minutes late and you will be sitting on the floor or standing against the wall.
Action is quick. The games cover the gamut of bingo card challenges and the prizes – – the prizes include; pottery, yard art, home decor, inflatable rafts, animals and desserts, bird houses, candle sticks, tea towels, kitchenware, small electronic gizmos and large beach towels.
When a player shouts “BINGO!,” audible groans come from the judge’s table. “Double check that card!,” can be heard throughout the building. It was a BINGO!
Matthew Thompson is a family law attorney in Mississippi and has won every year he has attended bingo…May the odds be ever in your favor.
The Mississippi Bar Convention is the annual meeting where lawyers attend mandatory Continuing Legal Education (CLE).
2019 Agenda (partial)
Lawyers are required to attend 12 hours of CLE each year including an hour of ethics. Typically lawyers attend a session that coincides with their practice area.
The attorneys at TLF routinely are presenters at CLEs throughout the year for the MS Bar Center, MC Law, Ole Miss law, MVLP and the MS Center for Legal Services, among others.
Matthew Thompson is a frequent speaker at CLEs throughout the state and speaks on Family Law, Ethics and Gun Law.
Who would want to go on vacation with a bunch of lawyers?!
The Mississippi Bar Convention is the annual meeting where the Bar, the entity that oversees all lawyers admitted to practice law in Mississippi, conducts its installation of incoming officers, celebrates those lawyer & judges that have done praiseworthy acts, and hosts general family fun.
Lawyers can complete their annual requirements for Continuing Legal Education, meet other lawyers from different parts of the state and/or different practice areas and see your judges with their “hair down.”
There are parties, receptions, lunches, dinners, events and games. And all of this is happens on the sunny, sandy beaches of san Destin, FL.
So, who has two thumbs and wants to vacation with a bunch of lawyers? This guy.
Matthew Thompson is a family law attorney in Mississippi and has attended the convention for 13 years.
Sometimes divorcing parties act like criminals, but Divorce Court is NOT Criminal Court (typically).
Divorce court, a.k.a. Chancery Court, is a civil court. The Court’s function is to legally divorce parties that are entitled to be divorced and divide property. The Court has the authority to deal with and punish conduct that is violative of its Orders or disruptive conduct that occurs directly in its presence. Other than those instances it is not a punitive Court. You typically are not punished for marital fault…
Criminal court, which can be Circuit, County, Municipal, or Justice, among others, can punish. These Courts have prosecutors whose job is to prove the accused committed a crime/violated a law. The Judge or a jury determines if the matter was proven and a punishment, including; incarceration, fines, and other remedies.
However, sometimes these can relate or overlap. Conduct that could serve as grounds for divorce, such as domestic violence, is also a crime. The Court’s are independent of one another and you can be punished in Criminal Court and divorced in Chancery Court over the same facts.
Interestingly, your right to plead the fifth, invoking the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution can be done in both Courts. While it cannot be used against you in Criminal Court, it can be used to make an adverse inference in Chancery Court. So, if you are accused of adultery/habitual fornication in Criminal Court, which IS a crime in Mississippi, you may invoke the fifth and the prosecutor must prove a violation of the law by beyond a reasonable doubt, however in Divorce Court, while you may invoke the fifth, the Court can treat that as an adverse inference/admission and could find such to be enough to rise to clear and convincing evidence of adultery. Confused yet?
Divorce Court and Criminal Court are different animals, with different standards and different outcomes. However, all are serious and your rights may be infringed if the Court determines they should be.
Matthew Thompson is a Divorce Court lawyer and encourages those charged with a crime to confer with an experienced Criminal Defense attorney.
“Sanction” is a penalty or punishment provided as a means of enforcing obedience to a law. thelawdictionary.org
The Mississippi Rules of Civil Procedure, that all attorneys and parties have to abide by in litigation, include a specific rule that an attorney or a party may NOT file a motion that is frivolous or for the purpose of harassment or delay. M.R.C.P 11.
(b) Sanctions…For wilful violation of this rule an attorney may be subjected to appropriate disciplinary action. Similar action may be taken if scandalous or indecent matter is inserted. If any party files a motion or pleading which, in the opinion of the court, is frivolous or is filed for the purpose of harassment or delay, the court may order such a party, or his attorney, or both, to pay to the opposing party or parties the reasonable expenses incurred by such other parties and by their attorneys, including reasonable attorneys’ fees. [Amended effective March 13, 1991; amended effective January 16, 2003] M.R.C.P 11
Rule 11 provides two alternative grounds for the imposition of sanctions—the filing of a frivolous motion or pleading, and the filing of a motion or pleading for the purpose of harassment or delay. See Nationwide Mut. Ins. Co. v. Evans, 553 So. 2d 1117, 1120 (Miss. 1989). M.R.C.P 11
Although a finding of bad faith is necessary to sustain the imposition of sanctions based on purposeful harassment or delay, a finding of bad faith is not necessary to sustain the imposition of sanctions based upon frivolous pleadings or motions. M.R.C.P. 11.
A pleading is “frivolous” if its “insufficiency…is so manifest upon a bare inspection of the pleadings, that the court or judge is able to determine its character without argument or research.” In re Estate of Smith, 69 So. 3d 1, 6 (Miss. 2011). M.R.C.P 11
Sanctions against a party are improper in cases where the party relied strictly on advice of counsel and could not be expected to know whether the complaint was supported by law, where the party relied on advice of counsel in filing the pleading and played no significant role in prosecution of the action; or where the party was unaware and lacked responsibility for any bad faith harassment or delay. See Stevens v. Lake, 615 So. 2d 1177, 1184 (Miss. 1993). M.R.C.P 11
Let Rule 11 serve as a warning against filing things you know are untrue and/or that you cannot prove.
Matthew Thompson is a Chancery Court attorney in Mississippi and doesn’t often seek sanctions, but does when it’s warranted.
Sixty days and you are divorced is NOT the law in Mississippi.
§ 93-5-2 – Divorce on ground of irreconcilable differences
“(4) Complaints for divorce on the ground of irreconcilable differencesmust have been on file for sixty (60) days before being heard... the provisions of Section 93-5-17 to the contrary notwithstanding.”
60 days is NOT a deadline. It is a minimum, mandatory waiting period. It provides sufficient time for a cooling-off period and typically sufficient time to do all of the things necessary to complete the paperwork required in an Irreconcilable Differences divorce.
You are NOT automatically divorced on day 60 or 61. It means that AFTER 60 days the completed paperwork may be presented to the Chancellor for their review and approval.
Additionally, all of the paperwork does NOT have to be completed before you file and the Court will keep the file open for at least 12 months with no additional activity. This means at any point after the initial filing and 60 days, a divorce may be presented and finalized.
Matthew Thompson is a “No Fault” divorce attorney in Mississippi.
