Season 1
Overrides this season: 0 of 8.
| Episode | Ticket | Ruling | Hal’s note | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season 1 · Episode 1 | #9026 Is it OK to ask for change when giving a tip? | Tie, decided by Hal for the motion | The motion is permission to ask, which Jared correctly separated from any duty to supply change. Agnes and Bernice identified a real cost, but it only arises under Brent's sequence of handing the twenty first. A refusable question asked before the handoff costs the driver nothing and lets the five-dollar tip happen, so the tie breaks for. | 2026-10-02 |
| Season 1 · Episode 2 | #9006 One space or two after a period? | Tie, decided by Hal for the motion | Tie broken for the motion: one space is the modern convention, because proportional type already spaces sentences. Jared alone kept the motion to that convention and refused both Brent's Thursday order and the unestablished consent claims. Agnes named the real household issue but argued it against the wrong motion; Bernice's costs were asserted, not shown. | 2026-10-05 |
| Season 1 · Episode 3 | #9012 Does Dave get a share of the $40,000 pool win, and who pays for it? | Tie, decided by Hal against the motion | Entry rule was two dollars paid; covering was a courtesy the letter itself calls 'usually.' Bernice correctly priced the lapse and separated permission from duty. Jared rightly split eligibility from liability. Agnes located where obligation would sit but never proved one. Brent found the real loss, then drifted to an undrawn pool design. | 2026-10-07 |
| Season 1 · Episode 4 | #9023 When two people get a static shock, who shocked who, or are both guilty? | Tie, decided by Hal for the motion | Tie broken for the motion. The spark required both charges; shocker and shockee is the wrong frame. Brent had the mechanism, Bernice the cost, Agnes correctly removed the carpet from the whiteboard, Jared drew a true distinction but offered no other finding, which would have left the Hardaways' whiteboard standing. Equal blame is the smallest supported answer. | 2026-10-09 |
| Season 1 · Episode 5 | #9034 Does the one-or-two spaces after a period rule also apply to colons and address zip codes? | Upheld, with a note | Majority was right that one rule cannot cover both cases, but only Jared gave the reason that holds: punctuation inside text versus a field boundary in an address. Brent was correct on the colon and buried it under an unrequested sheet and a bell overage. Agnes argued ownership, Bernice priced a sheet the motion never contained. | 2026-10-14 |
| Season 1 · Episode 6 | #9027 Water before toothpaste, after toothpaste, or none at all when brushing teeth? | Tie, decided by Hal for the motion | Matt's instinct was right: water is optional, not required. The motion stands as 'need not,' not 'must not.' Bernice costed the dry start correctly and held the motion to its wording. Jared rightly demanded proof nobody supplied. Agnes raised the only physical claim and never tested it. Brent voted early and argued boldness. | 2026-10-14 |
| Season 1 · Episode 7 | #9037 Does the middle seat get both armrests, or are they first come first served? | Upheld, with a note | Majority correctly refused an exclusive entitlement; Bernice's permission-versus-duty line is the mechanism. Note: Marcy's first-come rule fails too, as Jared flagged. Brent scope-crept past the bell; Agnes imported an unsupported tray-table claim. Upheld with a note, no override. | 2026-10-16 |
| Season 1 · Episode 8 | #9025 Is it OK to safely run a red light that seems to be malfunctioning? | Upheld, with a note | Majority correctly rejected elapsed time as the source of permission; Jared named that gap and corrected Agnes's consent frame. Bernice priced the risk onto the green-side driver. Brent's clear-look instinct is the real mechanism but his shortened clock repairs nothing. Nobody said the practical rule: a failed signal is treated as a stop sign. |
Pilot
Overrides in the pilot: 0 of 8.
| Ticket | Ruling | Hal’s note | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| #9001 Is cereal a soup? | Tie, decided by Hal against the motion | Tie broken against the motion. Bernice gave the classification argument that actually decides it (poured, not cooked; milk bought as milk; a name does not cook milk into broth). Jared dismantled the soup camp's serving-format definition and kept the motion to its words. Agnes conflated a household's right to a nickname with classification. Brent tried to ship before the ruling. | 2026-09-24 |
| #9002 Is it pronounced GIF or JIF? | Tie, decided by Hal against the motion | The motion claims one correct pronunciation; there isn't one. Agnes had the right fact but treated naming as ownership of sound. Bernice correctly priced the correction desk and recognized use as settled. Jared held scope and gave the deciding reason: naming does not settle shared pronunciation. Brent argued nothing on the motion. | 2026-09-25 |
| #9003 Is it okay to recline your airplane seat? | Upheld, with a note | The majority is right to reject 'whenever': the recline shifts a real cost onto knees, laptops, and meals. But Agnes's consent frame would forbid reclining altogether, which is wrong on a red-eye. The answer is a conditioned recline. Bernice priced the cost; Jared held the word the motion fails on; Brent named the paid button; Agnes named the transaction. | 2026-09-26 |
| #9004 Light mode or dark mode? | Tie, decided by Hal against the motion | Permanent dark trades a proven daily harm (blur for the astigmatic reader) for benefits that hold only at night and only on an unestablished panel type. That leaves one letter-writer worse off, so the tie breaks against. Jared alone kept stated conditions apart from facts and voted no for the reason that decides it. | 2026-09-26 |
| #9005 Tabs or spaces for indenting code? | Upheld, with a note | Majority right on tabs as default; the reader-sets-width argument is real. Note: the letter-writer asked why people fight, and the answer is convention plus enforcement, not correctness. Jared's dissent limits the motion without defeating it. Brent's second editor was never before the committee. | 2026-09-27 |
| #9013 Is being polite to smart speakers and robot vacuums good manners or pointless? | Upheld, with a note | Majority right: courtesy is practice for the speaker, not a debt to the device. Agnes reached the right side by treating the machine as owed respect, which it is not. Bernice's wake-word cost is real and drawn from the letter but narrows the motion rather than defeats it. Brent's second speaker was never before the room. | 2026-09-28 |
| #9008 Crusts: eat them or leave them? | Upheld, with a note | Majority right: none of the three eat-it reasons creates an obligation; preference stays with the eater, waste is solved by serving less, the hair claim is false. Note: nobody said the trimmings can be kept, and Brent's second plate adds nothing because the crust is already on the first one. | 2026-09-28 |
| #9011 Cereal first or milk first? | Tie, decided by Hal against the motion | Two methods, two goals, each correct for its own; the motion tried to make one of them the household's rule without any shared burden on the record. Jared held the finding to what the letter established. Agnes had the standing right but leaned on unverifiable tickets. Bernice costed a bowl the method never used. Brent scope-crept into Dual. | 2026-09-30 |