(Trigger warning: the defendant-protagonist in the story is phobic. So maybe you won’t want to read this lest it sends you into the screaming fantods.) (“Screaming fantods” are not a novel defense strategy. At least I don’t think Edward Gorey meant them to be.)<\/p>\n
Document-Phobia Defense Works in Sweden<\/em><\/h2>\n<\/a><\/em><\/p>\nSep 12, 2016 04:01 pm | Kevin<\/em><\/h4>\n<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n ![\"Terrifying\"](\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/loweringthebar.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/windowletter.jpg?fit=300%2C169\")
<\/em><\/p>\n<\/a>Swedish sources report that a man charged with\u00a0knowingly operating an unregistered\u00a0vehicle has successfully asserted the officialdocuphobia defense: he claimed\u00a0he didn\u2019t know he needed to register because his\u00a0crippling fear of official correspondence prevented him from opening letters that would have\u00a0told him so.\u00a0See\u00a0\u201cFrias f\u00f6r trafikbrott p\u00e5 grund av fobi f\u00f6r f\u00f6nsterkuvert<\/a>,\u201d\u00a0Sk\u00e5nska Dagbladet\u00a0(Sept. 2, 2016).<\/em><\/p>\nI apologize to\u00a0Sk\u00e5nska Dagbladet\u00a0subscribers for whom this may be old news.<\/em><\/p>\nAccording to the report, the 49-year-old resident of Visseltofta drove his moped off the road in July 2015, and responding officers found he was intoxicated. They also found his moped was not\u00a0p\u00e5st\u00e4lld, a word that\u00a0online resources absolutely\u00a0refuse to translate but appears to mean<\/a> something like<\/a> \u201cregistered\u201d (insurance and tax have been paid, that is). Also, it turned out that he had been busted for the same thing in April, so they charged him with two counts of drunk driving, one count of violating\u00a0a\u00a0traffic records law, and one count of unlawful driving for knowingly failing to p\u00e5st\u00e4ll his moped.<\/em><\/p>\nThe other charges stuck, but the court let him off the hook for unlawful driving, despite a fairly convoluted and not-too-convincing argument. The moped was\u00a0un-p\u00e5stalld\u00a0when\u00a0he bought it in 2013, the report says, but the man said he had paid insurance and submitted \u201cthe documents on ownership,\u201d and thought\u00a0that was all he needed to do. He might have learned otherwise after the April incident, but that didn\u2019t happen, he testified, because he \u201cgot ambulance transportation\u201d at that time and the police \u201cnever had the chance to talk to him about it.\u201d So either that moped accident was pretty\u00a0serious, or maybe a friend of his who\u2019s an ambulance driver just happened to be passing by. Hard to say.<\/em><\/p>\nSomeone pointed out, however, that since he filed the ownership papers he\u00a0should have been getting letters from the Swedish Transport Agency telling him that he needed to p\u00e5st\u00e4ll the thing. He probably did, he admitted, but if so he could not have read them, because he has\u00a0a phobia of official correspondence (the Swedish word is\u00a0 f\u00f6nsterkuvert<\/a>, literally \u201cwindow envelope\u201d)\u00a0that makes it impossible for him to open or read such letters. In fact, he said,\u00a0\u201cpurely the sight of a\u00a0f\u00f6nsterkuvert results in severe anxiousness.\u201d Ignorance of the law is usually no excuse anyway, but the court decided to accept this excuse, finding he had not acted \u201cknowingly.\u201d\u00a0(I imagine it probably felt that the first three charges were plenty and this one wasn\u2019t worth the effort necessary to prove knowledge.)<\/em><\/p>\nThis is not the first time officialdocuphobia has been asserted, of course; you\u00a0saw it here in\u00a02008, when a German woman raised it<\/a> in an effort to explain why she hadn\u2019t sent in documents supporting her\u00a0benefit claims. But that court rejected the defense, saying that if she\u2019d suffered from the condition as long as she claimed, she could and should have sought treatment for it.\u00a0Also, the condition\u00a0is closely\u00a0related to \u201cLate-Filing Syndrome<\/a>,\u201d which is known to strike certain Americans on or shortly before April 15 each year.\u00a0LFS claims are reportedly \u201cnot uncommon,\u201d in fact, even though they don\u2019t seem to pass the Straight-Face Test. Still, as these cases demonstrate, sometimes\u00a0it might be worth a try.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I eschewed copying the New York Law Journal abstract about a defamation case Donald Trump–as defendant–won, because. But I’m not going to ignore this item from Kevin Underhill’s Lowering The Bar because I did not know other countries have legally … Continue reading
Sep 12, 2016 04:01 pm | Kevin<\/em><\/h4>\n<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\n<\/a>Swedish sources report that a man charged with\u00a0knowingly operating an unregistered\u00a0vehicle has successfully asserted the officialdocuphobia defense: he claimed\u00a0he didn\u2019t know he needed to register because his\u00a0crippling fear of official correspondence prevented him from opening letters that would have\u00a0told him so.\u00a0See\u00a0\u201cFrias f\u00f6r trafikbrott p\u00e5 grund av fobi f\u00f6r f\u00f6nsterkuvert<\/a>,\u201d\u00a0Sk\u00e5nska Dagbladet\u00a0(Sept. 2, 2016).<\/em><\/p>\nI apologize to\u00a0Sk\u00e5nska Dagbladet\u00a0subscribers for whom this may be old news.<\/em><\/p>\nAccording to the report, the 49-year-old resident of Visseltofta drove his moped off the road in July 2015, and responding officers found he was intoxicated. They also found his moped was not\u00a0p\u00e5st\u00e4lld, a word that\u00a0online resources absolutely\u00a0refuse to translate but appears to mean<\/a> something like<\/a> \u201cregistered\u201d (insurance and tax have been paid, that is). Also, it turned out that he had been busted for the same thing in April, so they charged him with two counts of drunk driving, one count of violating\u00a0a\u00a0traffic records law, and one count of unlawful driving for knowingly failing to p\u00e5st\u00e4ll his moped.<\/em><\/p>\nThe other charges stuck, but the court let him off the hook for unlawful driving, despite a fairly convoluted and not-too-convincing argument. The moped was\u00a0un-p\u00e5stalld\u00a0when\u00a0he bought it in 2013, the report says, but the man said he had paid insurance and submitted \u201cthe documents on ownership,\u201d and thought\u00a0that was all he needed to do. He might have learned otherwise after the April incident, but that didn\u2019t happen, he testified, because he \u201cgot ambulance transportation\u201d at that time and the police \u201cnever had the chance to talk to him about it.\u201d So either that moped accident was pretty\u00a0serious, or maybe a friend of his who\u2019s an ambulance driver just happened to be passing by. Hard to say.<\/em><\/p>\nSomeone pointed out, however, that since he filed the ownership papers he\u00a0should have been getting letters from the Swedish Transport Agency telling him that he needed to p\u00e5st\u00e4ll the thing. He probably did, he admitted, but if so he could not have read them, because he has\u00a0a phobia of official correspondence (the Swedish word is\u00a0 f\u00f6nsterkuvert<\/a>, literally \u201cwindow envelope\u201d)\u00a0that makes it impossible for him to open or read such letters. In fact, he said,\u00a0\u201cpurely the sight of a\u00a0f\u00f6nsterkuvert results in severe anxiousness.\u201d Ignorance of the law is usually no excuse anyway, but the court decided to accept this excuse, finding he had not acted \u201cknowingly.\u201d\u00a0(I imagine it probably felt that the first three charges were plenty and this one wasn\u2019t worth the effort necessary to prove knowledge.)<\/em><\/p>\nThis is not the first time officialdocuphobia has been asserted, of course; you\u00a0saw it here in\u00a02008, when a German woman raised it<\/a> in an effort to explain why she hadn\u2019t sent in documents supporting her\u00a0benefit claims. But that court rejected the defense, saying that if she\u2019d suffered from the condition as long as she claimed, she could and should have sought treatment for it.\u00a0Also, the condition\u00a0is closely\u00a0related to \u201cLate-Filing Syndrome<\/a>,\u201d which is known to strike certain Americans on or shortly before April 15 each year.\u00a0LFS claims are reportedly \u201cnot uncommon,\u201d in fact, even though they don\u2019t seem to pass the Straight-Face Test. Still, as these cases demonstrate, sometimes\u00a0it might be worth a try.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I eschewed copying the New York Law Journal abstract about a defamation case Donald Trump–as defendant–won, because. But I’m not going to ignore this item from Kevin Underhill’s Lowering The Bar because I did not know other countries have legally … Continue reading
<\/a>Swedish sources report that a man charged with\u00a0knowingly operating an unregistered\u00a0vehicle has successfully asserted the officialdocuphobia defense: he claimed\u00a0he didn\u2019t know he needed to register because his\u00a0crippling fear of official correspondence prevented him from opening letters that would have\u00a0told him so.\u00a0See\u00a0\u201cFrias f\u00f6r trafikbrott p\u00e5 grund av fobi f\u00f6r f\u00f6nsterkuvert<\/a>,\u201d\u00a0Sk\u00e5nska Dagbladet\u00a0(Sept. 2, 2016).<\/em><\/p>\n I apologize to\u00a0Sk\u00e5nska Dagbladet\u00a0subscribers for whom this may be old news.<\/em><\/p>\n According to the report, the 49-year-old resident of Visseltofta drove his moped off the road in July 2015, and responding officers found he was intoxicated. They also found his moped was not\u00a0p\u00e5st\u00e4lld, a word that\u00a0online resources absolutely\u00a0refuse to translate but appears to mean<\/a> something like<\/a> \u201cregistered\u201d (insurance and tax have been paid, that is). Also, it turned out that he had been busted for the same thing in April, so they charged him with two counts of drunk driving, one count of violating\u00a0a\u00a0traffic records law, and one count of unlawful driving for knowingly failing to p\u00e5st\u00e4ll his moped.<\/em><\/p>\n The other charges stuck, but the court let him off the hook for unlawful driving, despite a fairly convoluted and not-too-convincing argument. The moped was\u00a0un-p\u00e5stalld\u00a0when\u00a0he bought it in 2013, the report says, but the man said he had paid insurance and submitted \u201cthe documents on ownership,\u201d and thought\u00a0that was all he needed to do. He might have learned otherwise after the April incident, but that didn\u2019t happen, he testified, because he \u201cgot ambulance transportation\u201d at that time and the police \u201cnever had the chance to talk to him about it.\u201d So either that moped accident was pretty\u00a0serious, or maybe a friend of his who\u2019s an ambulance driver just happened to be passing by. Hard to say.<\/em><\/p>\n Someone pointed out, however, that since he filed the ownership papers he\u00a0should have been getting letters from the Swedish Transport Agency telling him that he needed to p\u00e5st\u00e4ll the thing. He probably did, he admitted, but if so he could not have read them, because he has\u00a0a phobia of official correspondence (the Swedish word is\u00a0 f\u00f6nsterkuvert<\/a>, literally \u201cwindow envelope\u201d)\u00a0that makes it impossible for him to open or read such letters. In fact, he said,\u00a0\u201cpurely the sight of a\u00a0f\u00f6nsterkuvert results in severe anxiousness.\u201d Ignorance of the law is usually no excuse anyway, but the court decided to accept this excuse, finding he had not acted \u201cknowingly.\u201d\u00a0(I imagine it probably felt that the first three charges were plenty and this one wasn\u2019t worth the effort necessary to prove knowledge.)<\/em><\/p>\n This is not the first time officialdocuphobia has been asserted, of course; you\u00a0saw it here in\u00a02008, when a German woman raised it<\/a> in an effort to explain why she hadn\u2019t sent in documents supporting her\u00a0benefit claims. But that court rejected the defense, saying that if she\u2019d suffered from the condition as long as she claimed, she could and should have sought treatment for it.\u00a0Also, the condition\u00a0is closely\u00a0related to \u201cLate-Filing Syndrome<\/a>,\u201d which is known to strike certain Americans on or shortly before April 15 each year.\u00a0LFS claims are reportedly \u201cnot uncommon,\u201d in fact, even though they don\u2019t seem to pass the Straight-Face Test. Still, as these cases demonstrate, sometimes\u00a0it might be worth a try.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I eschewed copying the New York Law Journal abstract about a defamation case Donald Trump–as defendant–won, because. But I’m not going to ignore this item from Kevin Underhill’s Lowering The Bar because I did not know other countries have legally … Continue reading <\/em><\/p>\n