Numbers are every bit as persuasive and powerful as verbal arguments and presentations. In fact, they can be far more potent, insidious and misleading, too.

 

Fortunately, attorneys and law students may now consult a newly revised case book by Michigan State University alumnus Ashley Saunders Lipson. Courtroom Use and Misuse of Mathematics, Physics and Finance: Cases, Lessons and Materials, cuts through confusion and is now available from the Carolina Academic Press.

 

“This new edition catalogs a vast array of scams, schemes and deceptive courtroom presentations that confront lawyers regularly. Nearly every chapter of this book provides information that all lawyers must possess. We live in a scientific world, a digital world — one that is ruled by numbers, equations, formulas and statistics. The topics may seem complex, but the explanations are elementary and, at times, entertaining,” according to the publisher.

 

Lipson is a law professor at the University of La Verne’s College of Law in Ontario, CA. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the MSU College of Communication Arts and Sciences, majoring in television and radio, in 1966.

 

This most recent case book follows on the heels of the 2009 release of Computer and Video Game Law: Cases, Statutes, Forms, and Problems & Materials, which he co-authored and was also published by Carolina Academic Press.

 

“It guides the reader down a colorful path of disputes involving such familiar hardware names and game titles as: Magnavox, Gameboy, Nintendo, PlayStation, Pong, Pacman, Space Invaders, Tetris, Tomb Raider, Frogger, Galaxian, Asteroids, Donkey Kong, Pete Rose Baseball, and Doom,” the publisher writes.