Book Review

• Citation: Vol. 49 No. 3
• Publication year: 2023
• Year: 2023
• topic: Business of Law

BOOK REVIEW Vol. 49 No. 3 Pg. 35 Vermont Bar Journal October 2023

The Common Flaw: Needless Complexity in the Courts and 50 Ways to Reduce It

by Thomas G. Moukawsher

Brandeis University Press, 2023.

Reviewed by Gary G. Shattuck, Esq.

Fifty. As in: Ways to Leave Your Lover; Shades of Grey; Hawaii Five-O; number of American states; years of marriage for a golden anniversary; and, of course, the "The Big Pineapple" ($50 dollar bill). But wait, there's more! Now, 61-year-old, first-time author (and sitting Connecticut judge) Thomas G. Moukawsher adds to this random genre with his legal treatise The Common Flaw: Needless Complexity in the Courts and 50 Ways to Reduce It (Waltham, MA: Brandeis University Press, 2023). While Moukawsher's goal to identify more than four dozen instances calling for reform may not sound as punchy as the others, it is, after all, the law. It is a topic that most people certainly have, at least, a passing, general love-hate understanding of, and opinion on, but lack the depth of knowledge or day-to-day personal stake in it that its practitioners, i.e., law students, law clerks, associates and partners, and at the top of the food chain, judges do. The question then is whether Moukawsher can wring out so many areas calling for attention that he is able to shake his peers from their lethargy to reset the way contemporary business is conducted to favor a larger, albeit skeptical, public audience.

Over the course of 51 chapters spanning 240 pages, punctuated by 51 pithy cartoons, Moukawsher soundly nails his 50 theses to the law's front door calling for reform. They vary widely in length from 33 pages (Chapter 1 - Prefer Humanity to Complexity) to just one (Chapter 48 - Courts Must Reimagine Themselves). Stretching to accomplish his goal, a few do become somewhat repetitive as they seek to distinguish themselves from a...