One of the rites of passage in the legal profession is that in order to enter, you have to plough through some incredibly turgid appellate opinions involving bales of hay and other commodities that were the stuff of litigation 80- or 100-plus years ago.

These days, opinions tend to be much easier to read. That's another way of saying they are better written, because ease of reading is surely a consequence of good writing.

And they are no longer about hay. The case of Parrish, et. al. v. Latham & Watkins, et al. arose from a dispute about microbolometers. What's a “microbolometer,” you might ask? The California Supreme Court explains that it is a device “used in thermal imaging systems to detect infrared radiation.”