Have Gavel Will Travel ~ Review

Have Gavel Will Travel
By Robert Braithwaite

If you'd like to take a look at what the life of a judge or magistrate is truly like you need to read Have Gavel Will Travel.  Covering a variety of situations that require a judgement, Robert Braithwaite takes you through the legal process.  Some cases are heart-breaking while others are completely unbelievable.

I agree with his assessment of Perry Mason, as my sisters and I have recently discovered these reruns. Why would the non-charged guilty individual always come undone at the end of the show, declaring before everyone not only their guilt but how they committed said crime.

I loved the bonus material at the end of the book where real world descriptions of legal terms are given.  It is amazing how these terms are archaic in regard to the modern usage of  words.  And how many people know what a Pro Hac Vice is?

The legal system is explained through various case examples taken from his career.  And the falsies of the fictional televised courtrooms are touched on.

If you want to read something that is entertaining and outside of your normal fiction fare take a look at Have Gravel Will Travel.  Though I haven't read her books some might be interested to learn that Robert Braithwaite is the father of Ally Condie (New York Times best-selling author of several YA books), whom is referenced a few times in the book as just Ally.

I was provided a digital PDF ARC file of this book by the publisher in exchange for my honest review and tour participation.

About the book:

What happens in a national park doesn’t stay in a national park. It often ends up in Robert Braithwaite’s courtroom—or sometimes on his kitchen table. Over a lifetime of administering justice, he saw everything from canoodling nudes to sheep hunters with drones to downright dangerous drug cartels. This collection of cases is so outrageous and bizarre you’ll have to read it to believe it.

About the author:

Robert Braithwaite currently resides in Cedar City, Utah. He attended Southern Utah University and the University of Utah, graduating in 1973 with a B. S. in Political Science in 1973. He graduated from the University of Utah School of Law with a Juris Doctor degree in 1976. As an attorney he maintained a private practice and served as City Attorney for Cedar City, Parowan and Springdale. He also served for eight years as a member of the Utah Air Conservation Committee, the statutorily-established body regulating pollution emissions in the state.

In a twenty-seven year career as a judge, Robert Braithwaite has been a circuit judge, a district judge, a juvenile judge, a pro tem Utah Supreme Court judge and is now a U. S. magistrate judge. While a state judge, he served on the Utah Judicial Council, the governing board of the Utah state judiciary, and served as chairman of its Policy and Planning subcommittee. As a part-time magistrate judge he now hears criminal cases arising in the southern half of Utah, usually occurring in National Parks and Monuments, National Forests, and federal lands. Needless to say, he rides a circuit, hearing cases in four diverse locations at St. George, Big Water, Moab, and Salt Lake City.

His wife is an artist and art professor. Together they have raised four children.