Local Government Law

As a county attorney, I was involved in a zoning case.... One day, ... the judge summoned all of us to his chambers for a conference concerning the case. As we sat around his conference table, his law clerk brought in the accumulated papers in the case. The papers were then placed in two stacks: one stack originating from the landowner's attorneys, and the other from us.

The judge then brought out a ruler and measured the two stacks. He then turned to the landowner's attorney and said, "Mr. Attorney, you have exceeded 12 inches. I will receive and consider no more documents in your behalf." Both the courts and the legislature risked the peril of the "twelve-inch rule" this year.