Justice-Denied · Editorial cartoons
Cartoon 18 of 26
The Detail Detector
Satire. Dialogue is imagined; the underlying rulings and records are linked below.
Read cartoon text
Panel 1: THE ASSESSMENT
A reader examines a large sealed 111 PAGES file beside a six-line PRIVILEGE LOG tag and a personified DETAIL DETECTOR. The existing plaintiff-side human figure in this panel is Craig Stevenson.
Craig: Can I assess the claim?
Panel 2: THE COMPARISON
The personified PLAINTIFFS’ LOG / 7 PAGES holds headings SENDER, DATE, PURPOSE beside still-sealed WITHHELD DOCUMENTS.
Plaintiffs’ log: We supplied identifying details.
Panel 3: THE SCAN
The detector illuminates only a PRIVILEGED label; a MOTION TO AMEND LOG page receives a DENIED stamp.
Detector: Privilege detected.
Panel 4: THE METHOD
The reader opens the detector and discovers a simple magnifier pointed at PRIVILEGED. The detector explains that it read the label. The existing plaintiff-side human figure in this panel is Craig Stevenson.
Craig: How did you assess it?
Detector: I read the label.
Artwork caption: Imagined dialogue. Sources on the cartoon page.
Behind the cartoon
A privilege log identifies documents withheld as legally protected and describes them so the other side can assess that claim without seeing the protected contents. This dispute arose in Craig and Marie Stevenson's civil suit against family members. Justice-Denied reports a six-line defense privilege log covering 111 withheld pages, compared with plaintiffs’ seven-page log identifying their withheld material. Motions asking defendants to amend their log were denied. A machine for assessing privilege proves remarkably good at recognizing the word privileged.
Underlying records
- The Privilege Customs Desk — underlying court recordStevenson v. Stevenson, 56-CV-20-2928, Doc. 154, pp. 3–5 and 14–18; defendants’ May 12, 2021 log, reproduced in the article.
More record detail
Stevenson v. Stevenson, 56-CV-20-2928, Doc. 154, pp. 3–5 and 14–18; defendants’ May 12, 2021 log, reproduced in the article.
