A novel use for chess clocks

From the Newark Star Ledger:

Legal strategy is often compared to a game of chess. But in a state court in Atlantic City next month, the comparison will take on new meaning.

In a bid to limit New Jersey's next Vioxx trial to just three weeks, Superior Court Judge Carol Higbee will use a pair of chess clocks to closely track the amount of time each side has to make its case. And neither side will have lots of time to declare checkmate.

Lawyers representing two men who claim Merck's Vioxx painkiller caused their heart attacks will have a total of 40 hours, not counting opening and closing arguments. Lawyers for the Whitehouse Station-based drugmaker will have 35 hours.

So donate your old chess clocks to a local court and help speed up the hands of justice. Of course, they won't need as many as they think as soon as they learn that a single chess clock per courtroom is all that is required, not a pair.