Lawyers are wrecking the Sunflower State

An online survey by the Kansas Chamber of Commerce indicates that "[a] total of 84 percent of respondents said they spend more time now than ever before managing the risks of being sued. That's led 60 percent of them to increase their liability insurance, change operations and pay lawyers -- all in the effort to protect themselves against lawsuits."

It's hard to convey sarcasm in this format, so I'll just say that I think internet surveys have a built-in level of unreliability. Insurance companies routinely gouge people who pay premiums--it's how they make money. And trial lawyers are not out to prey upon small business owners. "Trial lawyer" is not a dirty word on Main Street, the way it is on Wall Street--people hire us when they've suffered some injustice.

The "study" was cosponsored by the American Justice Partnership, a thinktank whose sole purpose appears to be to get rid of the litigation system that is regular Americans' last resort against corporate or government wrongdoing. I wonder if we can afford to lose the system that gave us Brown v. Board of Education, the Enron shareholders' lawsuit, and so much more.

Word.

Molly Ivins is in fine form today, with "The New Activist Judges," in which she dismisses the neverending chorus of complaints about liberal activist judges, and points out that the real activists on the federal bench are the judges who bend over backwards to protect corporate interests against individual citizens. Brilliant.

Somehow, activist judges are held responsible for gay marriage, Roe v. Wade and everything else Americans disagree about, as though Americans would never disagree without their encouragement. Conservatives have been mad at the Supreme Court since it decided to desegregate the schools in 1954 and seen fit to blame the federal bench for everything that has happened since then that they don’t like.

. . . .

Money, money, money is the motif of the “New Activist” federal judges, but they have also been busy, busy limiting congressional authority and individual rights. As People for the American Way notes, federal appellate courts—effectively the court of last resort for most Americans—are working on: questioning the constitutionality of the Endangered Species Act, overturning the National Labor Relations Board rulings against anti-union discrimination and other unfair labor practices by employers, allowing the Bush administration to keep secret the records of the Cheney energy task force, and rewriting by court order a state law on First Amendment activity.

Other Bush appellate judges have ruled to deny protection to workers who file claims of race and disability discrimination, made it harder to protect the environment, and issued other decisions that will affect our lives and liberties for decades.

Activist judges, indeed.

Bush appoints out-of-state lawyer to be U.S. Attorney for Alaska

From today's Anchorage Daily News:

Outsider named U.S. attorney for Alaska

Anchorage Daily News

Published: August 22, 2006
Last Modified: August 22, 2006 at 09:14 PM

Nelson Cohen, a federal lawyer from Pennsylvania, has been appointed U.S. attorney for the district of Alaska, taking the post held by Deborah Smith in an acting capacity since U.S. Attorney Tim Burgess resigned last year to take a seat on the U.S. District Court in Anchorage.

An announcement from the U.S. attorney's office in Anchorage did not explain why the job was given to a non-Alaskan. It said only that Smith's 210-day legal limit as acting U.S. attorney expires today.

Cohen has been an assistant U.S. attorney in the western district of Pennsylvania since 1987. Before that, he worked as a lawyer in Alaska, initially in the U.S. attorney's office, then in private practice.

Cohen got his law degree from Duquesne University of Law.

I love the passive voice--"has been appointed." Makes it sound like it just happened, rather than something that the president did. It always disappoints me when stuff like this happens--it makes it look like there's no local talent here. Sure he has Alaska ties, which is nice, but he hasn't practiced up here in nearly 20 years. I know for a fact that there are Republican lawyers in Alaska. Some of them are eminently qualified, and I'll bet some of them are even nice. Heck, some folks on Gov. Murkowski's staff might be looking for work.

My theme music

Here's the Wallflowers with Jordan Zevon (Warren's son) playing "Lawyers, Guns, and Money" on Letterman. It's like a reunion show for rock legends' kids.

They do a good job, except for that one word I couldn't understand.

I'd love to have the original version of this song blaring over the speakers whenever I walk into a courtroom. And maybe "Son of a Preacher Man" by Dusty Springfield when I walk out.

Spit take, a.k.a. "He Did What?"

Just a reminder that the confession of JonBenet Ramsey's purported killer is not the only "legal" story in the news (a few seconds ago, CNN showed mugshots of John Mark Karr, O.J. Simpson, and Robert Blake side by side--why do I even try watching cable news?).

Anyway, a few days ago our esteemed President signed a bill allowing any beneficiary of a deceased person's 401(k) plan to roll the entire amount into an IRA without owing windfall taxes. Income Tax was not my best subject, but that's Kind of a Big Deal. This will allow same-sex couples (or anyone else, really) to use a loophole that was previously available only to spouses. I think that's awesome. I wonder what Bush's evangelical base will think?

Gorbachev sez: our press is free, nothing to see here!

Good old Mikhail Gorbachev seems to think that the free press is doing OK in Russia:

Former Soviet President and author of perestroika Mikhail Gorbachev told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that freedom of the press is not being stifled in Russia under President Putin despite some "worrying tendencies." According to Gorbachev, this viewpoint is shared by most Russians who also disagree with frequent accusations that democracy in Russia is being suppressed.

He closed with: "All hail the benevolent, handsome, and wise Generalissimo Putin!"

Perhaps he hasn't read the Reporters Sans Frontiers annual report, which states that a climate of fear causes reporters to self-censor, that the Kremlin directly censors TV journalists, that independent papers that criticize the war in Chechnya are frequently shut down, and that denying work permits to nosy foreign journalists is apparently no big deal. And lets not forget Grigory Pasko, sentenced for treason for collaborating with Japanese journalists on a story documenting the Russian Navy's dumping of nuclear waste into the Pacific Ocean. If memory serves, the eXile was onto this bogus free press stuff years ago.

And finally, "author of perestroika?" Come on! The first Russian leader to institute a policy called perestroika was Tsar Alexander II in the 1860s. And I would call Alexander the author of nothing. But what do I know?

OK, back to the law stuff soon, I promise!

Weekend hilarity

Time for a break from more weighty matters--a couple of funny things caught my eye:

From McSweeney's (God bless you, David Eggers), "The Andover Grade Reports of George W. Bush, Senior Year." Here are a few passages:

The Constitution and Modern Society: Withdrawn

- - - -

World Religions: Incomplete

What a breath of fresh air! George's folksy wisdom and constant (almost like clockwork) refrains of "Lemme get this straight!" and "They think what now?" bring an air of calculated (I hope) naiveté to our usually intense and searching dialogues about belief systems throughout history and across the globe. Though other students, in the midst of reconciling their own beliefs with those of others, sometimes suffer crises of faith, George has remained steadfast! Unfortunately, George's final grade will remain an Incomplete until I receive his paper "Waiting for the End of the World: How I Plan to Hurry Up Armageddon and Get the Rapture Started." I can't wait!

- - - -

Physical Education: A+

Great job, George! Keep up the good work!

Yep, Mr. Prep School Yankee Scion sure has a folksy charm about him, doesn't he?

And from Huffington Post by way of Boing Boing, "What Right-Wingers See When They Read the New York Times," a mouse-over page in which a headline like "Questions Surface About U.S. Surveillance Program" becomes "Come Kill Us, Terrorist Comrades!" My favorite: "Heatwave Engulfs Most of Nation" changes to "Liberal Media Blasts Heartland with Deadly Heat Ray." Too funny. Maybe I'm just tired of arguing that yes, New York and San Francisco are just as much a part of America as Omaha and Charleston.

What a week for the Russian Far East

So, first the Russian Coast Guard shoots and kills a Japanese fisherman for allegedly straying into Russian territorial waters, the first death in 50 years of arguing about the Kuril Islands. The Kurils are another long story, seized by the Soviet Union in the last days of World War II, the spoils of about a week's worth of war in the Pacific Theatre. The dispute over the islands has prevented a peace Treaty between Russia and Japan since 1945.

Then, a 6.0 earthquake hits Sakhalin and northern Japan. Fortunately, it sounds like no one was hurt.

Also, Vladivostok seems to be a shining example of crony capitalism at its worst.

This whole region used to seem so idyllic 10-15 years ago. It must have been my rose-colored glasses--good thing my prescription changed.

Warrantless wiretaps? Unconstitutional? Who knew!

From Think Progress:

Fox News reports a federal district court in Detroit has ruled that the Bush administration’s NSA warrantless wiretapping program is unconstitutional and ordered an immediate halt to it.

A separate federal district court in San Francisco had previously rejected the administration’s argument that the courts could not hear the case due to a “state secrets” privilege. The lawsuits have alleged that NSA program violated the First and Fourth Amendments, as well as a number of federal statutes, including the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The defendants included AT&T and the federal government.

. . .

Don't even get me started on how easy it is to get a FISA warrant. Here's the judge's opinion (.pdf), which states: "In this case, the President has acted, undisputedly, as FISA forbids. FISA is the expressed statutory policy of our Congress. The presidential power, therefore, was exercised at its lowest ebb and cannot be sustained." (p. 36) And here's a .pdf of her injunction.

Some good news at last. Hopefully this won't be short-lived, and the Sixth Circuit and U.S. Supreme Court won't say otherwise.

Note to Republicans in power: just because you can't control the judiciary, it doesn't mean that the judiciary is "out of control."

Note to the NSA: if you're monitoring me, I'm just kidding!!

Update: Some more beautiful words from Judge Anna Diggs Taylor's opinion: "We must first note that the Office of the Chief Executive has itself been created, with its powers, by the Constitution. There are no hereditary Kings in America and no powers not created by the Constitution. So all 'inherent powers' must derive from that Constitution." (p. 40). Or, as Tom Paine put it: "In America, the law is king." Damn, Judge Taylor is good. Or the clerk that wrote the opinion is good!

OK, "legal briefs" underpants jokes were already old when I was a kid.

Don't get me wrong, the gag has had a good run. It's time to put it out to pasture and find something else lawyerly to laugh at, like res ipsa loquitor or attractive nuisances. Seriously.

From News24:

New meaning to 'legal briefs'
16/08/2006 23:59 - (SA)

London - A lawyer has given a whole new meaning to the phrase "legal briefs" by dropping his suit trousers inside a court corridor in northeast England in protest at stringent new security measures.

Willie Johnstone stood with his trousers around his ankles inviting security staff to search him after being told to pass through electronic scanners at Sunderland magistrate's court, the Press Association news agency said on Wednesday.

He was one of a dozen defence lawyers protesting against the beefed-up security, which makes no exceptions to those who are scanned and searched before entering any courtroom through the main front door.

The real-life briefs claim the measures discriminate against them because they do not apply to prosecutors, magistrates (lower court judges) or court staff, who get into the building through a back door.

Still, that's my kind of civil disobedience: pulling one's pants down to protest security measures that single out defense attorneys (sworn officers of the court, as much as prosecutors are anyway). I love the fact that the courthouse I go to has no metal detector and doesn't smell like urine.

This is why I don't like family law cases . . .

. . . you just see people at their worst.

What? I'm a geek--I'm allowed to mock my own. Shut up.

Legal aid story, update

OK, an updated version of the AP story has such an egregious error that I couldn't let it slide: "Across the country, the neighborhood offices of the Legal Services Corp. - where one out of every two poor Americans is turned down for help because the agency lacks resources - are a far cry from the federal program’s headquarters." Maybe they know something I don't, but I find it hard to believe that fifty percent of Americans below the poverty line have even encountered Legal Aid, let alone been turned away. Surely the AP could afford some copyeditors--c'mon, help a starving liberal arts major (like I once was)!

So they're stepping up security at Russian art museums . . .

. . . I guess I won't be getting that original Kandinsky after all. Zhal. Full story here.


Seriously, I've been in love with this guy's paintings since I was a teenager:

Luxury spending found in legal program

From AP:

Aug. 14, 2006, 2:53PM
Luxury spending found in legal program

By LARRY MARGASAK Associated Press Writer
© 2006 The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The federal program that provides legal help to poor Americans turns away half of its applicants for lack of resources. But that hasn't stopped its executives from lavishing expensive meals, chauffeur-driven cars and foreign trips on themselves.

Agency documents obtained by The Associated Press detail the luxuries that executives of the Legal Services Corp. have given themselves with federal money _ from $14 "Death by Chocolate" desserts to $400 chauffeured rides to locations within cab distance of their offices.

The government-funded corporation also has a spacious headquarters in Washington's tony Georgetown district _ with views of the Potomac River and a rent significantly higher than other tenants in the same building.

And board members wrote themselves a policy that doubled the amount they could claim for meals compared with their staff.

. . . .

Legal Services is a nonprofit corporation run with federal money that was created by Congress to provide legal help in civil matters for Americans who can't afford their own lawyers. It funds neighborhood clinics across the country where lawyers provide such help.

Three congressional committees have questioned the program's spending as has the corporation's own internal watchdog. The chairman of the tax-writing Senate Finance Committee is threatening to withhold future money if the corporation doesn't trim its extravagance.

"It's waste and abuse," said Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, citing the board's doubling of the meal money as an example. "At 200 percent, it seems to me what we would call in Iowa living high off the hog."

. . . .

The scrutiny of Legal Services' spending comes as the corporation says it doesn't have enough resources to meet many poor clients' needs.

Legal Services' own study found last October that for every client who receives service, one applicant is turned away for lack of resources. Since that study only counted those who contacted the program for assistance, the corporation said it likely underestimated the unmet need.

Sigh. The piece goes into further detail on just how extravagant the executives can be. The sad thing is that Legal Services Corporation's federal funding has remained virtually unchanged in actual dollars for about 25 years, with no adjustment for inflation. So if Congress wants to withhold funding, it'll hurt the indigent client base more than anyone else--whatever the LSC executives did, something tells me they'll be just fine . . .

Integrating the legal profession in South Africa

From News24:

Johannesburg - The legal-services sector, one of the last bastions of white male dominance in South Africa, is in for a major overhaul.

The envisaged transformation, set out in a draft legal-services charter published by the department of justice and constitutional development, comprises several strategies to bring about racial and gender equality in law firms and other institutions providing legal services.

Dealing with the needs of "the majority of South Africans who cannot afford legal services", the charter also proposes a number of strategies to improve their "access to justice".

It proposes the development of a proper pro bono (for the public good) system, requiring lawyers and advocates to undertake legal work voluntarily and without payment as a public service.

I could sound all superior and say that my country's legal profession is sooooo much more progressive, but the truth is that the ABA did its best to keep American lawyers white, male, and non-immigrant well into the mid-twentieth century. It even tried to shut down night law schools that were not affiliated with universities, because God forbid working class folks study to be lawyers in their off-hours. Most of those schools didn't survive, and those that did (like my own beloved school) got affiliated with larger institutions right quick. We are NOT the American aristocracy some legal scholars thought we should be.

I love the idea of mandatory pro bono work! In the ABA rules, it's recommended that we put in 50 hours of pro bono work a year. It's an aspirational rule, impossible to violate. As a result, lots of lawyers don't do a damn thing for clients who don't pay. God, I'd love to regulate the hell out of my colleagues. :)

Ooh--soapbox!