Justice or Joke? We recommend this week the book titled “The Wacky World of Laws” by Jeff Isaac, AKA “The Lawyer in Blue Jeans”:
Jeff Isaac is a veteran attorney and a public speaker well-known in the San Diego-area media. He is the host of 760 KFMB AM’s “The Lawyer in Blue Jeans”, a talk radio program in San Diego county. He also appears weekly on KUSI Channel 9 in San Diego.
Having written ten books including “The Wacky World of Laws,” Isaac is an accomplished author who has also written weekly columns for the San Diego Daily Transcript.
Isaac’s distinctive style of what he calls “Blue Jeans Law” evokes a philosophy which is a refreshing view of the legal system.
HOY EN DELAWARE: Why do you call yourself “The Lawyer in Blue Jeans”?
Jeffrey Isaac: Well, because I believe in bringing law down to plain English and so I wear blue jeans. But it’s more of a concept of, you know, taking law to a different level with a more common sense.
(HD): When and why the company “The Lawyer in Blue Jeans Co” was born?
(JI): Well, it was a concept in radio shows that my group and I started about 15 years ago.
(HD): Your group offers legal services at affordable prices. Do you think United States lawyers’ fees are very expensive?
(JI): Yes, they can be. 3, 4 or 500 dollars an hour gets really, really expensive. It makes it difficult for people to take their rights like rich people can.
(HD): What is the idea you want to communicate to your readers when you wrote “The Wacky World of Laws”?
(JI): The most important thing is that law doesn’t have to be complicated and everybody needs to understand how they can protect themselves in this illegal world.
(HD): In your book you mention some “wacky laws” p.eg. in Statewide which is in Delaware -the state were our newspaper is distributed- is against the law to pawn a wooden leg. Why do you think all these “wacky laws” exist nowadays?
(JI): Well, maybe sometimes it’s so we can laugh. But more importantly I think people had special issues. Politicians and they made their personal life become a public law. Some of those happened that way or they might have been outgrown those concerns and never taken them out of the books.
(HD): Don’t you think sometimes some of the “wacky laws” are not so wacky?. E.g. (in Rehoboth Beach) “whispering is illegal” and I think is a very useful law, don’t you?
JI: No. They are only unique sometimes. Some of them make sense. but than you also have to ask “Should it be a law? Would you go to jail? Or should it be a policy where at least it’s not a good idea but it doesn’t have to be sometimes.
(HD): When you refer to the “state things”, Who did create those “state things”?
(JI): Those are just for fun. Just like state rocks, the state flowers, the state songs. People just don’t realize that the people have adopted, it’s more information the states just adopted the state rock. That kind of thing. It’s more of a fun concept.
(HD): Some Spanish women who I talked about your book and especially the Spanish law that you mention “Men must do half of the housework”, asked me if you know what is the punishment for men who do not make his part of the housework?
(JI): What is the punishment? Well, Who knows, most of these laws don’t even get enforced. I got that there is a house work police hanging around watching to see if you violate the law. But that’s why it’s so funny that’s why it is a wacky law.
(HD): Why did you want become a lawyer?
(JI): Well, initially I wanted it because I decided not to go into school teaching and I thought it would be good to help the public and make changes in the world and after doing some of the traditional law I actually became more of what I am doing now which is making changes in a positive way versus fighting those battles.
(HD): If you could do it, would you change anything of your professional life?
(JI): Oh my! You know what, I don’t know if I would change much. It was an evolution from making peoples worst to enjoying what I do now, so it would probably be necessary to have that first and do what I do now.
(HD): Do you want to say anything else to our readers?
(JI): Well, that it’s important to keep common sense into the good laws as a way not to make money and not to take advantage of people but you protect yourself and live a better life.
