John Browning is a professor at Faulkner University's Thomas Goode Jones School of Law in Alabama. He was previously a Plano-based partner at Spencer Fane and a justice on the Court of Appeals for the Fifth District of Texas at Dallas. Courtesy photo October Brings Scary Things for the Legal System
"Is there anything scarier than government bureaucracy? Or, even worse, government bureaucracy combined with technology?" writes columnist John G. Browning.
October 08, 2024 at 12:58 PM
5 minute read
CommentaryBy John G. Browning
October is, of course, the month of Halloween. And if the retail stores selling Halloween candy and spooky decorations before Labor Day weekend wasn't frightening enough, perhaps you need a few reminders that few things are scarier than what comes out of the legal system every single day.
Is there anything scarier than government bureaucracy? Or, even worse, government bureaucracy combined with technology? Just try the Mecklenburg County, North Carolina website for its registry of deeds and other public legal documents. When users go to the screen for making an online death certificate request, the first question asks who is on the death certificate. That's a perfectly reasonable inquiry, but the choices to click on include "Someone else" and the rather surprising "Myself." So … let me get this straight, Mecklenburg County—do you have a lot of dead people requesting their own death certificate? I'm not sure which is scarier: a county overrun by zombies or its own incompetence.
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