From a family doctor at Musings of a Dinosaur, comes this worthwhile read: Managing Risk:

"Despite its bad rap, the legal system really does work more often than it doesn't"

The Mommy Blawg hosts Blawg Review #158;

John Guyette from the Center for Justice and Democracy gets the call for jury duty, which he recounts at The PopTort; and

Brooks Schuelke puts up Personal Injury Law Round-Up #61, that includes among its nuggets this medical malpractice story of a screwdriver being substituted for a titanium rod in back surgery.

Labels: Random Notes

The brouhaha that started out on Long Island with part-time private lawyers being listed as full-time public employees in schools and getting pension benefits, has now mushroomed into a full blown scandal. According to tomorrow's New York Law Journal, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is predicting that "hundreds and hundreds" of attorneys will ultimately be implicated in his office's investigation of government entities improperly enrolling non-employees in public pension funds.

And this is the scary part, while "there will be people beyond lawyers" found to be receiving improper public pension benefits, "the predominant class will be lawyers."

The story broke February 15th with this story in Newsday after an investigation by auditors with the New York State Comptroller's Office: Five districts falsely reported lawyer's job status. At that time a part-time municipal attorney found to be on the employment rolls of five different school districts defended himself by saying it was "common practice." It appears now that that may have been true, that it was common practice. But if everyone in your area runs a stop sign, it is no defense when you get busted to say that everyone does it.

Careers are about to go up in smoke. Many, many careers. This "PensionEsq." scandal will be with us for a long, long time.

Scott Greenfield, author of Simple Justice (and criminal defense lawyer extraordinaire) has been providing extensive coverage to date:

• The Busiest Lawyer on Long Island (2/15/08)
• Let's Not Forget Who's Minding The Store (2/17/08)
  
• How To Explain Why the Lawyers Were So Wrong (4/4/08)
• Oversight needed on special-district lawyers (Greenfield op-ed in Newsday and open thread at his blog on it)
  

Updated with commentary/news on the scandal:

• "The Predominant Class Will Be Lawyers" (5/9/08; Greenfield):

  The patchwork quilt of what I call "baby governments" is rife with corruption, but it's mostly of the petty sort. A dime here, a dollar there, a harmless little violation of the open meetings law, a blow-off of the freedom of information law. Selective and vindictive resolution of problems or enforcement of law. That sort of stuff. The sort that allows the big fish in tiny little ponds to feel self-important and powerful, all on someone else's dime.

• Pension Probe Will Snare 'Hundreds' of Attorneys, N.Y. Attorney General Predicts (5/9/08: Albany's Insanity)

  For those of you that continually come out and defend the inept governments of this state, for those of you that just love to personally attack people like us for calling it like we see it, just read, it is just like we have been saying for years, time to open your eyes, take off the blindfolds and go after this crap.

• Cuomo Sees Fraud in Some Lawyers’ Pensions (5/9/08; New York Times)

  Over the years, Mr. Cuomo said, the benefits have become a standard and expected perk for the lawyers, who often have political ties to the officials handing out the benefit. The system has proliferated, Mr. Cuomo suggested, because of New York’s profusion of state, county and local governments.

  
  

Labels: Attorney Ethics

OK, this has nothing to do with personal injury law. So if you came here just for that, you can leave now. This has to do with running.

For the second time in seven months I find myself gracing the front page of the local sports section, with the photo you see at right looming large in the center of the print version. (The first time was October 14th, with a substantially geekier picture, not that I look so sharp here.) It's a feature story about trails in Westchester County, just north of NYC.

But here's the important part about the piece: This past winter local officials linked together numerous parks in to create the 12+ mile Colonial Greenway, which loops its way through numerous Westchester communities that line Long Island Sound. The fact that such a thing can even be created in one of the most developed suburban areas of the nation is incredible. And the fact that the trails pass through different jurisdictions made creation of the system a difficult task, with different people responsible for different sections.

Just to give some perspective on what has been created, it is possible to hike or run 15 miles or more (depending on which trails you choose) without ever doubling back or even crossing your own trail, with 90% of that loop on dirt through the woods (a few street sections are unavoidable.) There is really nothing quite like it in the New York metropolitan area.

I started running these trails back in 2000, and spoke to local officials about linking them together in 2002. Now, six years and many meetings later, signs are up, trails are blazed, and money has been allocated for improvements throughout the system.

I'd like to find some analogy to the law, but the best I can find is that working with public officials in numerous jurisdictions is somewhat like litigation. It can take a long time, but if you prevail, it is worth the effort.

When the trail gets officially dedicated, I'll return to the subject.

The map is here:

Labels: Running

This is one of the weirder legal arguments I have seen. And it comes today on top of the very weird subpoena that had been issued by Virginia attorney Clifford Shoemaker to New Hampshire blogger Kathleen Seidel a few weeks ago.

The brief background is that Shoemaker represents Lisa and Seth Sykes in a Virginia suit over whether mercury in vaccines causing autism. Seidel isn't part of that recently discontinued suit; she is just a blogger (albeit a very knowledgeable one) in New Hampshire who writes on the subject at her blog, Neurodiversity.

Now Weird Move #1 came when Shoemaker served a subpoena on Seidel asking for all kinds of crazy stuff that has nothing to do with his suit, including production of "all documents pertaining to the setup, financing, running, research, maintaining the website http://www.neurodiversity.com." This included the out-of-this-world crazy demand regarding "religious groups (Muslim or otherwise), or individuals with religious affiliations"(See: Abuse of Process: Blogger, Unrelated to Action, Hit With Subpoena).

I, and many others, suggested sanctions might be in order and, lo and behold, the judge agreed. (See: Subponea on Blogger Seidel Quashed; Attorney Shoemaker May Be Sanctioned) I can't be the only one waiting to see the justification for what appears to be religious fear mongering, among other issues in a subpoena that seems dedicated to harassing Seidel.

So that brings us to today and Weird Move #2, wherein Shoemaker hires local counsel in New Hampshire to defend him against the potential for sanctions, that he was ordered to do within 10 days. And local counsel, to no great surprise, needs more time to respond due to the press of business. A perfectly reasonable thing to ask, mind you, and an application 99% of judges would grant. Except for some itty, bitty, little details.

In the motion papers, one of the new lawyers (John McHugh, based in New York) decides to take this pot-shot at Seidel instead of just asking for more time:

[Seidel] and her associates have done more than comment on these positions; they have taken action to discredit the Sykes family, Lisa Sykes as a minister of the United Methodist Church, and witnesses who have given support to the family's positions. They have interfered with these witnesses' professions, professional relationships, and economic opportunities.

Last time I checked, the First Amendment hadn't been repealed. Criticism is fair game.

But wait, there's more! After slamming Seidel, the new counsel then goes on to admit that:

However, your Declarant is new to this case and to Ms. Seidel, and while I have been attempting to gather the information needed, I have been unable to complete that
task due to the press of other work as well as the fact that Mr. Shoemaker has either been in hearings or preparing for imminent hearings, all in other cases, or taking third-party depositions in this action since he received this order. While I have interviewed some victims of Ms. Seidel's activity, I have not yet been able to gather the material I would need to show the Court the justification for the Subpoena and its scope. (Emphasis added)

So Weird Move #2 actually manages to include a few different issues:

• Why is it necessary to look for justification for the subpoena after it was issued?
  
• Other than talking to Shoemaker, who must have already had justification before the subpoena was issued, why would it be necessary to interview any other witness? It's only Shoemaker's rationale that matters to the sanctions motion.
  
• If Shoemaker has no time to talk to his counsel about Seidel and the subpoena because Shoemaker is up to his eyeballs in hearings, why is local counsel trash talking Seidel in the motion papers?

Shoemaker seems to be speeding toward a sanction. Here's the motion: SykesMotion.pdf

Labels: Attorney Ethics

Robert Bork's lawyer, Randy Mastro, has been tapped as a member of Senator McCain's steering committee for judicial selections. Mastro is currently a partner at Gibson Dunn, and a former Deputy Mayor under Rudy Giuliani.

Of interest to this blog, however, is that he fouled up Judge Bork's trip and fall lawsuit against the Yale Club, causing embarrassment to the former judge due to claims for "in excess of" of million dollars, punitive damages, attorneys fees and prejudgment interest. Mistakes were made in the Complaint (and the Amended Complaint) that even rookie lawyers wouldn't make. I chronicled many of the unnecessary legal problems that were created by the botched suit here:

• Robert Bork Brings Trip/Fall Suit for Over $1M, Plus Punitive Damages And Legal Fees
• What Should Bork Do Now? (my suggested amendments to the suit)
  
• Bork Amends Lawsuit, Keeps Claim for Over $1,000,000 Plus Punitive Damages (My open letter to Bork on the Amended Complaint)
• Bork's Attorney, Randy Mastro, Picked For Giuliani's Justice Advisory Committee
  

And so it appears that the old adage remains true: It isn't what you know, but who.

See also:

• McCain Says He Would Put Conservatives on Supreme Court (Washington Post)

(Hat tips to Scott Greenfield and Walter Olson)

Labels: Odds and Ends

Former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer entered private practice yesterday with Spitzer & Associates. Part of his practice will be personal injury law, among other matters within his unique world view. This includes, as he makes clear, some unique slip and fall cases as well as defective product litigation.

His entire announcement is here:

Labels: Eliot Spitzer