Reduce or eliminate litigation costs by learning how to write better contracts from the start. With illustrative cases, sample language, and current guidelines for potential clauses of a contract between a builder and buyer or remodeler and homeowner. This edition also covers warranties and disclaimers, environmental issues, inspections, and trade contracts with other team members. Includes sections on mold, arsenic, and notices.

If in doubt fall on your arse. That was the mantra of Fred Karno: acrobat, comedian, writer, music hall impresario, film producer and the undisputed king of slapstick. From his famous nursery of nonsense, the 'Fun Factory', the Guv'nor conquered the world, built an empire, made millions and lost the lot. In the process he discovered and trained the early twentieth century's greatest comedians: Will Hay, Robb Wilton, Sandy Powell, Syd Walker, Frank Randle, Max Miller, Billy Bennett, the Crazy Gang, and most significantly of all Stan Laurel and Charlie Chaplin. He pioneer physical sketch comedy and developed the raw material that Hollywood later fashioned into the finest comics of silent film. The phrase 'It's like Fred Karno's Army' entered the lexicon to describe any chaotic situation, but his extraordinary legacy is largely forgotten, lost in the mists of time and sullied by a tarnished personal reputation. This book tells the remarkable story of the man behind the myth and reveals Karno's huge contribution to comedy and popular culture - an impact which still resonates today.

Robert Herrick is the lawyer for the little guy in Houston, Texas. His courtroom experiences have been realistically recounted in David Crump's previous novels CONFLICT OF INTEREST, THE HOLDING COMPANY, AND MURDER IN SUGAR LAND. Now Herrick faces an international enemy of unbridled arrogance and ruthlessness: the drug kingpin El Jefe, whose petty grudge against a local reporter was expressed in a family bloodbath. Can a civil lawsuit against El Jefe's American bank bring some measure of justice? A mass murder wipes out three generations of a family, all hacked with machetes. It's a horrific crime, and obviously drug-related. But it's not possible that the perpetrators all live south of the border, because a drug enterprise needs partners in the United States for money laundering, financing, and transport. The survivors want justice. Robert Herrick is their choice to get it. He tells them No, because lawyers aren't trained to locate defendants who come and go like shadows-or to try lawsuits against drug lords in foreign countries. But circumstances and sympathies get the best of Herrick. He finds himself, quickly-and against the protests of his family-handling the strangest case of his life, drawn into a web of international intrigue that entangles him with the National Security Agency, the Mexican Army, the courts of two nations, and hired assassins. All the while, he's attempting to focus on the usual parts of the legal process: pretrial papers, deposition questioning, jury selection, and trial. The mundane gears of law don't seem up to the task of bringing to justice drug kingpins and their enabling American banks. Just when Herrick thinks the stakes can't get any higher, they do-and he realizes that he will have to fight with primitive energy if he wants to win this case . . . or if he wants to save his family from . . . THE TARGET DEFENDANT.

New from the author of "CONFLICT OF INTEREST" and "THE HOLDING COMPANY" Law professor David Crump's latest courtroom drama features Houston trial lawyer Robert Herrick, in a case that hits close to home. When his paralegal Brianna Edwards gets arrested for hiring a hit man, Herrick has to work the law and reality of murder for hire in the Lone Star State-in the toney city of Sugar Land, no less. Pitted against the toughest prosecutor around, who has marching orders to stamp out any threat of violent crime in the affluent community, Herrick will have to use all his courtroom wits and experience to make legal sense of the tangled law that Brianna faces.

"Absolutely superb David Crump describes the reality of a trial better than anyone. After 30 years as a trial lawyer and 14 years as a trial judge, I have had the same experiences. And Crump nails it. This is a book you simply cannot put down." - Judge R. Terence Ney
Past President, State Bar of Virginia

"David Crump knows his material and characters well He has written yet another excellent legal thriller."
- David Beck
Past President, State Bar of Texas

"Crump steers his readers through our judicial system as only a practitioner and professor of law is able to do This is a fascinating story crafted with characters who are so vivid and real that you are faced with the terrible conflict of not wanting to put it down, while realizing it will end too soon if you don't."
- Bill Balleza
News Anchor, NBC-TV Channel 2

"Each of David Crump's novels leaves me looking forward to the next. His characters are each so unusual, they are almost Faulkner-esque. I highly recommend this one "
- T. Gerald Treece
Legal Commentator, CBS-TV Channel 11

"The story takes you behind the scenes and behind the bench. It's a fun courtroom drama in classic Crump style...."
- D. Hull Youngblood
Past Chair, Board of Directors, State Bar of Texas

"This is the most realistic courtroom novel you'll find today, so grab your seat at the defense table and watch the legal chess match unfold "
- Gary Taylor
Pulitzer Prize Nominee Journalist; Author of true-crime bestseller "Luggage by Kroger"

The epic poem of the fall of Troy, the heroic journey, battles and loves of Aeneas, and the founding of Rome, by the great Latin poet Virgil -- as translated, condensed, and explained to modern readers by a professor who uses rhyme and a lively presentation to honor the spirit and true intent of Virgil -- without the customary literalism of previous translations.Epic in every way, this is one of the greatest and most entertaining adventure stories ever told. Millions have read and enjoyed it since Virgil first wrote it in the First Century B.C.But The Aeneid has never been presented like this before. It is now condensed to its essential and best parts, with short bridge notes to explain the third or so of the original that is omitted. Explanatory sidenotes and chapter guides place the work and its famous author in historical, thematic, and political context.Most of all, Professor David Crump has translated The Aeneid for the modern ear, complete with the rhythms and rhymes associated with poetry today. Avoiding the stodgy literalism of previous translations, he incorporates the true meaning of each turn and phrase -- using the words most accurately registering today for Virgil's work, all to bring the epic to life for a new generation. It will be enjoyed by readers who aren't necessarily Latin scholars.This book is simply fun to read, and at long last easy to understand and feel the sheer power of Aeneas's epic journey and destiny. Fate has decreed it.

How are we to understand petitionary prayer? This is a key question for any thoughtful believer who desires to take both the Bible and experience seriously. Some believe God answers any prayer as long as the one praying has enough faith and/or persistence. Others conclude from experience that prayer is really for our benefit and has no impact on God's actions. According to David Crump, both views are extreme and potentially harmful.
While books that deal with prayer from a devotional or experiential perspective have their value, "Knocking on Heaven's Door "takes a different approach. Crump carefully studies every New Testament passage that has to do with petitionary prayer and draws conclusions that are both theological and pastoral to help us understand the great mystery of prayer.

"If you haven't read poetry since high school, now is the time to start "
--Richard Alderman
KTRK Channel 13 (ABC Television) "Beethoven...Baseball...Buicks... and] Elway.... These sonnets...enjoy the world "
--Patricia Yongue
Professor of English, University of Houston " E]xtraordinary... What fun these poems are "
--Bryan Garner
"Garner's Dictionary of Modern American Usage"
(Oxford University Press) " These] meticulously crafted sonnets rocket exuberantly from the ancient world to cyberspace, unsettling the mind... and] surprising the heart."
--"Carolyn Wilkerson Bell"
Susan Duval Anderson Professor of English,
Randolph-Macon Woman's College

What does it really mean for Christians to live as faithful kingdom citizens in today's world? Bitter partisan conflict. State-sanctioned torture. Economic injustice. Ethical corruption. Even a cursory glance over daily news headlines shows a stark contrast between the American political state and the kingdom of heaven. Where, then, does the Christian's ultimate allegiance lie. In I Pledge Allegiance David Crump issues a clarion call to Jesus's twenty-first-century disciples, stirring them up to heed God's word and live out their kingdom citizenship here on earth. Closely examining the ethical teachings of Jesus and his apostles in the New Testament and using real-world examples to illustrate the vital issues at stake, Crump challenges Christians to embrace the radical, counterintuitive, upside-down way of Jesus-a way of living and thinking that turns the world's values on their head, smashes through stale political and cultural conventions, and welcomes God's kingdom into the very heart of our shared society.

The latest version of the Federal Rules is the anchor of this book, with some state variations noted where important. The text summarizes significant U.S. Supreme Court decisions, including the latest Confrontation Clause cases; additional leading cases; forefront expert, scientific, and electronic evidence developments; and principal schools of evidentiary thought. Includes practical implementation as well as scholarly approaches. It pays attention to the litigation process as a whole and includes interdisciplinary cross-pollination where helpful. Numerous signpost-type headings and subheadings light the way, concisely summarizing the gist of each evidentiary concept. The detailed table of contents alone could serve as a complete course outline. Distinctively, an analytical, thoughtful approach is emphasized throughout.

Personal, experiential faith is seldom given a seat at the table of academic theology and biblical studies. David Crump, however, with the assistance of Soren Kierkegaard's religious philosophy, claims that -authentic understanding, and thus authentic Christian commitment, can only arise from the personal commitment that is faith.- Examining the various biblical, historical, cultural, theological, and academic hurdles demanding a truly Kierkegaardian leap of faith before one can meet the resurrected Jesus, Crump's Encountering Jesus, Encountering Scripture provides a very insightful discussion of key New Testament texts and issues revealing how Truth is discovered only through the subjectivity of faith.

In this book Charles Puskas and David Crump provide a solid, student-friendly introduction to the four Gospels and the book of Acts. Leading students through the texts, highlighting the various literary devices and themes, and pointing out the historical and cultural contexts, An Introduction to the Gospels and Acts is a fruitful collaboration between a mainline scholar (Puskas) and a more evangelical scholar (Crump), who clearly articulate their own opinions while charitably engaging a wide spectrum of scholarship.

The coverage of the Gospels and Acts throughout is clear, comprehensive, and well documented. Maps, charts, outlines, and tables round out the wealth of information offered here. Evenhanded and nonpolemical, this text will be valuable both for students with a previous foundation of biblical study and for those with little or no Bible background.