Today is Friday and it is 10:07 am where I am at as I write this. Today is also my little girls graduation from daycare. I have flowers and a disney princess necklace to give her after she walks in her cap and gown. (when did that trend start btw). It is supposed to be a happy day.
I also have a developing problem with a baby momma drama. Seems dipshit let a violent ex (and baby daddy) pick baby up from day care yesterday and has not heard from him since. She doesn't even know his address. She is going apeshit wanting to have an "emergency" custody order also know as a TRO/Protective order. As a parent I sympathize with her concern, as a lawyer I know this really isn't an emergency. And it is of her making. How do you let your child go with a man you consider violent and whose address you do not know?
So now I am torn between helping this woman out assuming she can come up with the minimal amount of retainer I quoted and going to see my own little girl graduate.
The clearly obvious answer to to go to graduation right? But it is my chosen profession to help people in this kind of "crisis". I do it day in and day out. If I turn down too many potential clients they will stop calling.
Friday, May 30, 2008
Monday, May 26, 2008
Job Announcement
Today I was informed that should I accept it, I will be give a propationary appointment as assistant city prosecutor begining June 2. A friend of mine is also being given the same offer. This is a part time job.
The idea is to see which of us works best with the existing prosecutor and staff and/or to convince the city that there needs to be three prosecutors.
I am happy with this turn of events. I DID NOT apply for this job nor did I hunt it out. In fact I have been at war with this cities police for years. Back in 2002-2003 I helped expose police officers stealing/selling drugs.
If it works out - this could be the secure salary I need to feel secure to open my own law office.
The idea is to see which of us works best with the existing prosecutor and staff and/or to convince the city that there needs to be three prosecutors.
I am happy with this turn of events. I DID NOT apply for this job nor did I hunt it out. In fact I have been at war with this cities police for years. Back in 2002-2003 I helped expose police officers stealing/selling drugs.
If it works out - this could be the secure salary I need to feel secure to open my own law office.
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Case of the week
I was hired on Friday to handle a divorce against a high ranking county employeee who has been cheating on his wife. I do not expect much of a fight. In fact I expect a quick settlement and she will get pretty much what she wants.
He is an elected offical and very very republican. He is also in the closet. I have seen pics of him balls deep in another guys ass and mouth as well as his porn dvds titles AND his Action in Love membership- the Chirstian group that cures homosexuals. I do not expect he wil want ANY of that to become public.
He is an elected offical and very very republican. He is also in the closet. I have seen pics of him balls deep in another guys ass and mouth as well as his porn dvds titles AND his Action in Love membership- the Chirstian group that cures homosexuals. I do not expect he wil want ANY of that to become public.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
See offiseer what had happened was
I cannot tell you how often those words have been spoken. i heard it back when i was da man and i hear it said all the time out in the hall. Everyone has a story and everyone wants you to believe it.
For me the hard part is I have to at least act like I believe what the guy is telling me at least long enough for him to hire me. Then I get to toss the "bullshit" flag. As a rule the first person to lie to me in any type case is my own client.
In criminal cases I almost never let my client testify. He is going to be his own worst witness. If he does not take the stand the prosecution cannot discuss his wondeful, colorful rap sheet, or that he is a meth addict. Nope they can only talk about what he did. And I get to ask questions of the witnesses to make them look like they have no idea what they are talking about. Most times it is enough to at least get a verdict and a lesser sentence and sometime you win like I did this past Friday.
I tried a domestic violence case where my client, the guy, had the entire court room laughing at him while he testified how she beat him and pulled him out of the car. Not good. BUT after the entire 2 hour trial and a wonderful closing about how women can beat men and has anyoneever had thier hair pulled much less been drug around by thier hair? Well that is how a 120 lbs woman can pull a 200 lbs guy out ofa car. I got a not guilty verdict.
Now you noticed my client did testify in that one. Why? becuase we were arguing self defense. He HAD to tell his story since it was pretty clear they had been fighting. If all he had to say was I didnt'd do it he never would have gotten on the stand.
Today was just a bunch of motions and crap in divorce court. Yippeee I won all.
Tonight there is a going away party for a lawyer who got activated to serve as an active duty JAG officer. God Speed Sir.
For me the hard part is I have to at least act like I believe what the guy is telling me at least long enough for him to hire me. Then I get to toss the "bullshit" flag. As a rule the first person to lie to me in any type case is my own client.
In criminal cases I almost never let my client testify. He is going to be his own worst witness. If he does not take the stand the prosecution cannot discuss his wondeful, colorful rap sheet, or that he is a meth addict. Nope they can only talk about what he did. And I get to ask questions of the witnesses to make them look like they have no idea what they are talking about. Most times it is enough to at least get a verdict and a lesser sentence and sometime you win like I did this past Friday.
I tried a domestic violence case where my client, the guy, had the entire court room laughing at him while he testified how she beat him and pulled him out of the car. Not good. BUT after the entire 2 hour trial and a wonderful closing about how women can beat men and has anyoneever had thier hair pulled much less been drug around by thier hair? Well that is how a 120 lbs woman can pull a 200 lbs guy out ofa car. I got a not guilty verdict.
Now you noticed my client did testify in that one. Why? becuase we were arguing self defense. He HAD to tell his story since it was pretty clear they had been fighting. If all he had to say was I didnt'd do it he never would have gotten on the stand.
Today was just a bunch of motions and crap in divorce court. Yippeee I won all.
Tonight there is a going away party for a lawyer who got activated to serve as an active duty JAG officer. God Speed Sir.
Lawyer School
This is what I get to do today after I get out of Immigration Court:
"Integrity, Duty & Common Sense: A Dialogue on Interaction between the Bench & Bar" - May 20-22
The Bar with host a series of CLE sessions around the state May 20-22 to discuss interaction between lawyers and judges.
The purpose of the Forums is to take an introspective look at interaction and communications between lawyers and Judges in . Common scenarios in which lawyers and judges find themselves will be discussed and analyzed under the applicable ethics rules and canons.
Each session will be an open discussion involving panel members and those in attendance.
I think a better title is "How not to Bribe a Judge"
"Integrity, Duty & Common Sense: A Dialogue on Interaction between the Bench & Bar" - May 20-22
The Bar with host a series of CLE sessions around the state May 20-22 to discuss interaction between lawyers and judges.
The purpose of the Forums is to take an introspective look at interaction and communications between lawyers and Judges in . Common scenarios in which lawyers and judges find themselves will be discussed and analyzed under the applicable ethics rules and canons.
Each session will be an open discussion involving panel members and those in attendance.
I think a better title is "How not to Bribe a Judge"
Free legal advice (or what not to do)
It is not a good idea to show up to a federal court house with multiple small baggies of weed, several hundred dollars in $5s and $10s AND a .25 auto on your person. Especially if your name is Jose RiverSwimmer and it is for your "greencard*" trial.
If you didn't have the gun you would have been ok. Had you not noticed all the metal detectors on the last 3 visits? Or that I had to take my belt and shoes off to go through the metal detectors right before you?
*They haven't been green in over 25 years. Kinda pukey pink is color now.
If you didn't have the gun you would have been ok. Had you not noticed all the metal detectors on the last 3 visits? Or that I had to take my belt and shoes off to go through the metal detectors right before you?
*They haven't been green in over 25 years. Kinda pukey pink is color now.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
pop quiz
Ok, I am getting ready to challenge the following law passed by the MS state legislature. We are only on eof three states to have such a law. I want you to tell me your thoughts about what is wrong with it. Some are very obvious and should stand out. others would require some legal training (hint brandie)
The things i can tell you is Immigration is solely a federal issue - meaning states cannot regulate what is or is not legal immigration. The next thing is federal law trumps state law and lastly federal law has multiple laws regarding employement. ( Have you ever filled out an I-9 form? if not email me AFUCKINGSAP.)
Session Laws
2008 SB 2988
MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE
2008 Regular Session
To: Judiciary, Division A
By: Senator(s) Watson, McDaniel, Yancey
Senate Bill 2988
(As Sent to Governor)
AN ACT TO CREATE THE MISSISSIPPI EMPLOYMENT PROTECTION ACT; TO PROVIDE PROCEDURES FOR NEWLY HIRED EMPLOYEES AND THEIR EMPLOYERS; TO ENACT DEFINITIONS; TO REQUIRE EMPLOYEE VERIFICATION; TO PROVIDE EMPLOYER LIABILITY; TO SET UP EMPLOYER-EMPLOYEE PROGRAMS; TO MAKE PROVISIONS FOR THIRD-PARTY EMPLOYERS; TO DEFER TO FEDERAL LAW IN STATE LAW; TO ENACT EXEMPTIONS; TO DESIGNATE ENFORCEMENT DUTIES UNDER THE ACT; TO PROVIDE PENALTIES FOR VIOLATIONS OF THIS ACT; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:
SECTION 1. The Legislature finds that when illegal immigrants have been sheltered and harbored in this state and encouraged to reside in this state through the benefit of work without verifying immigration status, these practices impede and obstruct the enforcement of federal immigration law, undermine the security of our borders, and impermissibly restrict the privileges and immunities of the citizens of Mississippi. The Legislature further finds that illegal immigration is encouraged when public agencies within this state provide public benefits without verifying immigration status. The Legislature further finds that the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution reserves to the states those powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution. Therefore, the Legislature declares that it is a compelling public interest of this state to discourage illegal immigration by requiring all agencies within this state to fully cooperate with federal immigration authorities in the enforcement of federal immigration laws. The Legislature also finds that other measures are necessary to ensure the integrity of various governmental programs and services.
SECTION 2. (1) This act shall be known as the "Mississippi Employment Protection Act."
(2) The provisions of this section shall be enforced without regard to race, gender, religion, ethnicity or national origin.
(3) For the purpose of this section only, the following words shall have the meanings ascribed herein unless the content clearly states otherwise:
(a) "Employer" is any person or business that is required by federal or state law to issue a United States Internal Revenue Service Form W-2 or Form 1099 to report income paid to employed or contracted personnel in Mississippi.
(b) "Employee" is any person or entity that is hired to perform work within the State of Mississippi and to whom a United States Internal Revenue Service Form W-2 or Form 1099 must be issued.
(c) "Third-party employer" is any person or company that provides workers for another person or company. This includes, but is not limited to, leasing companies and contract employers.
(d) "Status verification system" means the electronic verification of work authorization program of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigration Responsibility Act of 1996, Public Law 104-208, Division C, Section 403(a); 8 USC Section 1324a, and operated by the United States Department of Homeland Security, known as the E-Verify Program.
(e) "Unauthorized alien" means an alien as defined in Section 1324a(h)(3) of Title 8 of the United States Code.
(f) "Public employer" means every department, agency or instrumentality of the state or a political subdivision of the state.
(g) "Subcontractor" means a subcontractor, contract employee, staffing agency or any contractor regardless of its tier.
(4) (a) Employers in the State of Mississippi shall only hire employees who are legal citizens of the United States of America or are legal aliens. For purposes of this section, a legal alien is an individual who was lawfully present in the United States at the time of employment and for the duration of employment, or was permanently residing in the United States under color of law at the time of employment and for the duration of employment.
(b) (i) Every employer shall register with and utilize the status verification system to verify the federal employment authorization status of all newly hired employees.
(ii) No contractor or subcontractor shall hire any employee unless the contractor or subcontractor registers and participates in the status verification system to verify the work eligibility status of all newly hired employees.
(iii) No contractor or subcontractor who enters into a contract with a public employer shall enter into such a contract or subcontract unless the contractor or subcontractor registers and participates in the status verification system to verify information of all newly hired employees.
(c) The provision of this section shall not apply to any contracts entered into on or before July 1, 2008.
(d) It shall be a discriminatory practice for an employer to discharge an employee working in Mississippi who is a United States citizen or permanent resident alien while retaining an employee who the employing entity knows, or reasonably should have known, is an unauthorized alien hired after July 1, 2008, and who is working in Mississippi in a job category that requires equal skill, effort and responsibility, and which is performed under similar working conditions, as defined by 29 USC, Section 206(d)(1), as the job category held by the discharged employee.
(e) An employing entity which, on the date of the discharge in question, was enrolled in and used the status verification system to verify the employment eligibility of its employees in Mississippi hired after July 1, 2008, shall be exempt from liability, investigation or suit arising from any action under this section.
(f) No cause of action for a violation of this section shall lie under any other Mississippi law but shall arise solely from the provisions of this section.
(5) Any employer that complies with the requirements of this section shall be held harmless by the Mississippi Department of Employment Security, provided the employer is not directly involved in the creation of any false documents, and provided that the employer did not knowingly and willfully accept false documents from the employee.
(6) (a) All third-party employers that conduct business in Mississippi shall register to do business in Mississippi with the Mississippi Department of Employment Security before placing employees into the workforce in Mississippi.
(b) Third-party employers shall provide proof of registration and any participation in the status verification system to any Mississippi employer with whom they do business.
(7) (a) State of Mississippi agencies and political subdivisions, public contractors and public subcontractors and private employers with two hundred fifty (250) or more employees shall meet verification requirements not later than July 1, 2008.
(b) Employers with at least one hundred (100) but less than two hundred fifty (250) employees shall meet verification requirements not later than July 1, 2009.
(c) Employers with at least thirty (30) but less than one hundred (100) employees shall meet verification requirements not later than July 1, 2010.
(d) All employers shall meet verification requirements not later than July 1, 2011.
(e) (i) Any employer violating the provisions of this section shall be subject to the cancellation of any state or public contract, resulting in ineligibility for any state or public contract for up to three (3) years, the loss of any license, permit, certificate or other document granted to the employer by any agency, department or government entity in the State of Mississippi for the right to do business in Mississippi for up to one (1) year, or both.
(ii) The contractor or employer shall be liable for any additional costs incurred by the agencies and institutions of the State of Mississippi, or any of its political subdivisions, because of the cancellation of the contract or the loss of any license or permit to do business in the state.
(iii) Any person or entity penalized under this section shall have the right to appeal to the appropriate entity bringing charges or to the circuit court of competent jurisdiction.
(f) The Department of Employment Security, State Tax commission, Secretary of State, Department of Human Services and the Attorney General shall have the authority to seek penalties under this section and to bring charges for noncompliance against any employer or employee.
(8) (a) There shall be no liability under this section in the following circumstances:
(i) An employer who hires an employee through a state or federal work program that requires verification of the employee's social security number and provides for verification of the employee's lawful presence in the United States in an employment-authorized immigration status;
(ii) Any candidate for employment referred by the Mississippi Department of Employment Security, if the Mississippi Department of Employment Security has verified the social security number and provides for verification of the candidate's lawful presence in the United States in an employment-authorized immigration status; or
(iii) Individual homeowners who hire workers on their private property for noncommercial purposes, unless required by federal law to do so.
(b) (i) Compliance with the sections of this statute shall not exempt the employer from regulations and requirements related to any federal laws or procedures related to employers.
(ii) This section shall not be construed as an attempt to preempt federal law.
(c) (i) It shall be a felony for any person to accept or perform employment for compensation knowing or in reckless disregard that the person is an unauthorized alien with respect to employment during the period which the unauthorized employment occurred. Upon conviction, a violator shall be subject to imprisonment in the custody of the Department of Corrections for not less than one (1) year nor more than five (5) years, a fine of not less than One Thousand Dollars ($1,000.00) nor more than Ten Thousand Dollars ($10,000.00), or both.
(ii) For purposes of determining bail for persons who are charged under this section, it shall be a rebuttable presumption that a defendant who has entered and remains in the United States unlawfully is deemed at risk of flight for purposes of bail determination.
SECTION 3. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2008, for all state agencies, departments, and political subdivisions, all employers who have contracts with the State of Mississippi, or with its departments, agencies, political subdivisions, all third-party employers, and any person or company using a third-party employer.
This act shall take effect and be in force from and after January 1, 2009, for all other employers who do business in Mississippi.
The things i can tell you is Immigration is solely a federal issue - meaning states cannot regulate what is or is not legal immigration. The next thing is federal law trumps state law and lastly federal law has multiple laws regarding employement. ( Have you ever filled out an I-9 form? if not email me AFUCKINGSAP.)
Session Laws
2008 SB 2988
MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE
2008 Regular Session
To: Judiciary, Division A
By: Senator(s) Watson, McDaniel, Yancey
Senate Bill 2988
(As Sent to Governor)
AN ACT TO CREATE THE MISSISSIPPI EMPLOYMENT PROTECTION ACT; TO PROVIDE PROCEDURES FOR NEWLY HIRED EMPLOYEES AND THEIR EMPLOYERS; TO ENACT DEFINITIONS; TO REQUIRE EMPLOYEE VERIFICATION; TO PROVIDE EMPLOYER LIABILITY; TO SET UP EMPLOYER-EMPLOYEE PROGRAMS; TO MAKE PROVISIONS FOR THIRD-PARTY EMPLOYERS; TO DEFER TO FEDERAL LAW IN STATE LAW; TO ENACT EXEMPTIONS; TO DESIGNATE ENFORCEMENT DUTIES UNDER THE ACT; TO PROVIDE PENALTIES FOR VIOLATIONS OF THIS ACT; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:
SECTION 1. The Legislature finds that when illegal immigrants have been sheltered and harbored in this state and encouraged to reside in this state through the benefit of work without verifying immigration status, these practices impede and obstruct the enforcement of federal immigration law, undermine the security of our borders, and impermissibly restrict the privileges and immunities of the citizens of Mississippi. The Legislature further finds that illegal immigration is encouraged when public agencies within this state provide public benefits without verifying immigration status. The Legislature further finds that the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution reserves to the states those powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution. Therefore, the Legislature declares that it is a compelling public interest of this state to discourage illegal immigration by requiring all agencies within this state to fully cooperate with federal immigration authorities in the enforcement of federal immigration laws. The Legislature also finds that other measures are necessary to ensure the integrity of various governmental programs and services.
SECTION 2. (1) This act shall be known as the "Mississippi Employment Protection Act."
(2) The provisions of this section shall be enforced without regard to race, gender, religion, ethnicity or national origin.
(3) For the purpose of this section only, the following words shall have the meanings ascribed herein unless the content clearly states otherwise:
(a) "Employer" is any person or business that is required by federal or state law to issue a United States Internal Revenue Service Form W-2 or Form 1099 to report income paid to employed or contracted personnel in Mississippi.
(b) "Employee" is any person or entity that is hired to perform work within the State of Mississippi and to whom a United States Internal Revenue Service Form W-2 or Form 1099 must be issued.
(c) "Third-party employer" is any person or company that provides workers for another person or company. This includes, but is not limited to, leasing companies and contract employers.
(d) "Status verification system" means the electronic verification of work authorization program of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigration Responsibility Act of 1996, Public Law 104-208, Division C, Section 403(a); 8 USC Section 1324a, and operated by the United States Department of Homeland Security, known as the E-Verify Program.
(e) "Unauthorized alien" means an alien as defined in Section 1324a(h)(3) of Title 8 of the United States Code.
(f) "Public employer" means every department, agency or instrumentality of the state or a political subdivision of the state.
(g) "Subcontractor" means a subcontractor, contract employee, staffing agency or any contractor regardless of its tier.
(4) (a) Employers in the State of Mississippi shall only hire employees who are legal citizens of the United States of America or are legal aliens. For purposes of this section, a legal alien is an individual who was lawfully present in the United States at the time of employment and for the duration of employment, or was permanently residing in the United States under color of law at the time of employment and for the duration of employment.
(b) (i) Every employer shall register with and utilize the status verification system to verify the federal employment authorization status of all newly hired employees.
(ii) No contractor or subcontractor shall hire any employee unless the contractor or subcontractor registers and participates in the status verification system to verify the work eligibility status of all newly hired employees.
(iii) No contractor or subcontractor who enters into a contract with a public employer shall enter into such a contract or subcontract unless the contractor or subcontractor registers and participates in the status verification system to verify information of all newly hired employees.
(c) The provision of this section shall not apply to any contracts entered into on or before July 1, 2008.
(d) It shall be a discriminatory practice for an employer to discharge an employee working in Mississippi who is a United States citizen or permanent resident alien while retaining an employee who the employing entity knows, or reasonably should have known, is an unauthorized alien hired after July 1, 2008, and who is working in Mississippi in a job category that requires equal skill, effort and responsibility, and which is performed under similar working conditions, as defined by 29 USC, Section 206(d)(1), as the job category held by the discharged employee.
(e) An employing entity which, on the date of the discharge in question, was enrolled in and used the status verification system to verify the employment eligibility of its employees in Mississippi hired after July 1, 2008, shall be exempt from liability, investigation or suit arising from any action under this section.
(f) No cause of action for a violation of this section shall lie under any other Mississippi law but shall arise solely from the provisions of this section.
(5) Any employer that complies with the requirements of this section shall be held harmless by the Mississippi Department of Employment Security, provided the employer is not directly involved in the creation of any false documents, and provided that the employer did not knowingly and willfully accept false documents from the employee.
(6) (a) All third-party employers that conduct business in Mississippi shall register to do business in Mississippi with the Mississippi Department of Employment Security before placing employees into the workforce in Mississippi.
(b) Third-party employers shall provide proof of registration and any participation in the status verification system to any Mississippi employer with whom they do business.
(7) (a) State of Mississippi agencies and political subdivisions, public contractors and public subcontractors and private employers with two hundred fifty (250) or more employees shall meet verification requirements not later than July 1, 2008.
(b) Employers with at least one hundred (100) but less than two hundred fifty (250) employees shall meet verification requirements not later than July 1, 2009.
(c) Employers with at least thirty (30) but less than one hundred (100) employees shall meet verification requirements not later than July 1, 2010.
(d) All employers shall meet verification requirements not later than July 1, 2011.
(e) (i) Any employer violating the provisions of this section shall be subject to the cancellation of any state or public contract, resulting in ineligibility for any state or public contract for up to three (3) years, the loss of any license, permit, certificate or other document granted to the employer by any agency, department or government entity in the State of Mississippi for the right to do business in Mississippi for up to one (1) year, or both.
(ii) The contractor or employer shall be liable for any additional costs incurred by the agencies and institutions of the State of Mississippi, or any of its political subdivisions, because of the cancellation of the contract or the loss of any license or permit to do business in the state.
(iii) Any person or entity penalized under this section shall have the right to appeal to the appropriate entity bringing charges or to the circuit court of competent jurisdiction.
(f) The Department of Employment Security, State Tax commission, Secretary of State, Department of Human Services and the Attorney General shall have the authority to seek penalties under this section and to bring charges for noncompliance against any employer or employee.
(8) (a) There shall be no liability under this section in the following circumstances:
(i) An employer who hires an employee through a state or federal work program that requires verification of the employee's social security number and provides for verification of the employee's lawful presence in the United States in an employment-authorized immigration status;
(ii) Any candidate for employment referred by the Mississippi Department of Employment Security, if the Mississippi Department of Employment Security has verified the social security number and provides for verification of the candidate's lawful presence in the United States in an employment-authorized immigration status; or
(iii) Individual homeowners who hire workers on their private property for noncommercial purposes, unless required by federal law to do so.
(b) (i) Compliance with the sections of this statute shall not exempt the employer from regulations and requirements related to any federal laws or procedures related to employers.
(ii) This section shall not be construed as an attempt to preempt federal law.
(c) (i) It shall be a felony for any person to accept or perform employment for compensation knowing or in reckless disregard that the person is an unauthorized alien with respect to employment during the period which the unauthorized employment occurred. Upon conviction, a violator shall be subject to imprisonment in the custody of the Department of Corrections for not less than one (1) year nor more than five (5) years, a fine of not less than One Thousand Dollars ($1,000.00) nor more than Ten Thousand Dollars ($10,000.00), or both.
(ii) For purposes of determining bail for persons who are charged under this section, it shall be a rebuttable presumption that a defendant who has entered and remains in the United States unlawfully is deemed at risk of flight for purposes of bail determination.
SECTION 3. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2008, for all state agencies, departments, and political subdivisions, all employers who have contracts with the State of Mississippi, or with its departments, agencies, political subdivisions, all third-party employers, and any person or company using a third-party employer.
This act shall take effect and be in force from and after January 1, 2009, for all other employers who do business in Mississippi.
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
I am alive
yes I am alive just nothing exciting to write about at the moment.
I did get hired by father who is charged with disturbing the peace for beating on his neighbors door. Seems the 50 y/o or so neighbor left a nasty love note and some roses on my clients 16 y/o girls windshield. he went to "talk" to the neighbor but when he wouldn't answer the door my guy knocked harder and harder. At some point the cops appeared and arrested him for simply knocking on the door rather than knocking this pervs head off. I predict a dismissal.
I did get hired by father who is charged with disturbing the peace for beating on his neighbors door. Seems the 50 y/o or so neighbor left a nasty love note and some roses on my clients 16 y/o girls windshield. he went to "talk" to the neighbor but when he wouldn't answer the door my guy knocked harder and harder. At some point the cops appeared and arrested him for simply knocking on the door rather than knocking this pervs head off. I predict a dismissal.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Lemons to lemonade
Holy fucking shit
I am in the middle a divorce trial several years in the making and just had the absolute shit knocked out of my case by my own client. I am now scrabbling to undo the damage, assuming that my cient wants me to. More to come
Today will go down in history - both my personal history and that of the Court.
To fully understand what has happened I need to educate you a little bit about divorce law in this state. In a divorce case a person must prove one of 13 fault grounds, the most common is adultery and habitual cruel and inhuman treatment (abuse – mental and physical). You can also get a divorce under irreconcilable differences. This requires BOTH spouses to agree to a divorce. This is NOT a no fault divorce. This state does not have such a thing.
This morning was a long awaited divorce. We filed under adultery and irreconcilable differences in February of 2007. The wife files for habitual cruel and inhuman treatment. It was a two year old marriage. My client was sued shortly after by his wifes ex-husband for what is called "alienation of affection" i.e. destroying his marriage. This was the case I settled last week by paying $1,700.00. I have done my best to settle this divorce to get my client as much visitation as possible – more than the normal court ordered schedule. The wife will not budge.
Today gets off to a good start. The wife is called by me as an adverse witness as my first witness (my favorite tactic) and get her to admit that she has slept with many men during the course of her two year marriage. Slam dunk on adultery, my client will get his divorce and she will have to pay all court costs and maybe my clients attorneys fees. She has to admit he is a good parent when she is caught in some lies. Seems she forgot about all the damn transcripts of prior hearings and all the god forsaken depositions. In fact she gets caught in a ton of lies. She has no proof of habitual cruel and inhuman treatment. I feel great.
Next my client takes the stand and I walk him through his testimony and he does good. She may have to pay a shit load of money as her share of martial debt, I even have the judge thinking my clients legal fees in the other suit is a martial debt. Then it happens. I am not even sure of the exact question I asked but my client states "I do not want a divorce". I am dumbfounded. The judges head snaps up and he looks dead at me. Fuck he heard it too. I attempt to get my client to say he wants a divorce. Nope, not gonna happen. That simple statement acts as forgiveness of his wife’s adultery. Now it gets tricky as to what is going to happen.
I rest my case and the other attorney puts on several witnesses of no real import. He is then about to call his last witness – his own client. I ask the Judge for a sidebar because of what I think is about to happen. I point out that my client cannot be granted a divorce on adultery anymore, the Judge agrees. I point out that unless the other attorney is about to just knock it out to the park he cannot meet his burden under habitual cruel and inhuman treatment. Judge agrees. I ask for a break to discuss settlement. That is when I posted the 1st part of the blog while doing crash legal research on making sure i can do what I am about to suggest.
I am in a panic about what to do to get this divorce or how to settle this.
Now the wife is a bitch and thinks she will win. She will not even consider a settlement. I talk with my client and his family. This is the 1st chance I get after his little bombshell. Seems he was wanting to say that he did not want a divorce because he thinks his child needs both parents and that would be best, but that since the wife will not reconcile he is willing to get a divorce. I can fix that, but do we want to. He will not get the full custody he wants and I cannot force the wife to settle for anything short of him paying everything and every other weekend visits.
I propose to my client that we roll the dice – she cannot prove grounds, the judges dismisses the divorce and we force her to negotiate. That is what we did.
No divorce, The udge orders that they share custody. Mom has primary from August 1 until May 1 at 5pm. My client has from May 1 at 5 until July 31. He has to pay child support during her time and she has to pay on his time. They each get every other weekend and off Wednesday when they do not have primary custody. In 21-22 days my client has his child. I expect mom will be asking to settle around June.
Hell I impress myself sometimes.
I am in the middle a divorce trial several years in the making and just had the absolute shit knocked out of my case by my own client. I am now scrabbling to undo the damage, assuming that my cient wants me to. More to come
Today will go down in history - both my personal history and that of the Court.
To fully understand what has happened I need to educate you a little bit about divorce law in this state. In a divorce case a person must prove one of 13 fault grounds, the most common is adultery and habitual cruel and inhuman treatment (abuse – mental and physical). You can also get a divorce under irreconcilable differences. This requires BOTH spouses to agree to a divorce. This is NOT a no fault divorce. This state does not have such a thing.
This morning was a long awaited divorce. We filed under adultery and irreconcilable differences in February of 2007. The wife files for habitual cruel and inhuman treatment. It was a two year old marriage. My client was sued shortly after by his wifes ex-husband for what is called "alienation of affection" i.e. destroying his marriage. This was the case I settled last week by paying $1,700.00. I have done my best to settle this divorce to get my client as much visitation as possible – more than the normal court ordered schedule. The wife will not budge.
Today gets off to a good start. The wife is called by me as an adverse witness as my first witness (my favorite tactic) and get her to admit that she has slept with many men during the course of her two year marriage. Slam dunk on adultery, my client will get his divorce and she will have to pay all court costs and maybe my clients attorneys fees. She has to admit he is a good parent when she is caught in some lies. Seems she forgot about all the damn transcripts of prior hearings and all the god forsaken depositions. In fact she gets caught in a ton of lies. She has no proof of habitual cruel and inhuman treatment. I feel great.
Next my client takes the stand and I walk him through his testimony and he does good. She may have to pay a shit load of money as her share of martial debt, I even have the judge thinking my clients legal fees in the other suit is a martial debt. Then it happens. I am not even sure of the exact question I asked but my client states "I do not want a divorce". I am dumbfounded. The judges head snaps up and he looks dead at me. Fuck he heard it too. I attempt to get my client to say he wants a divorce. Nope, not gonna happen. That simple statement acts as forgiveness of his wife’s adultery. Now it gets tricky as to what is going to happen.
I rest my case and the other attorney puts on several witnesses of no real import. He is then about to call his last witness – his own client. I ask the Judge for a sidebar because of what I think is about to happen. I point out that my client cannot be granted a divorce on adultery anymore, the Judge agrees. I point out that unless the other attorney is about to just knock it out to the park he cannot meet his burden under habitual cruel and inhuman treatment. Judge agrees. I ask for a break to discuss settlement. That is when I posted the 1st part of the blog while doing crash legal research on making sure i can do what I am about to suggest.
I am in a panic about what to do to get this divorce or how to settle this.
Now the wife is a bitch and thinks she will win. She will not even consider a settlement. I talk with my client and his family. This is the 1st chance I get after his little bombshell. Seems he was wanting to say that he did not want a divorce because he thinks his child needs both parents and that would be best, but that since the wife will not reconcile he is willing to get a divorce. I can fix that, but do we want to. He will not get the full custody he wants and I cannot force the wife to settle for anything short of him paying everything and every other weekend visits.
I propose to my client that we roll the dice – she cannot prove grounds, the judges dismisses the divorce and we force her to negotiate. That is what we did.
No divorce, The udge orders that they share custody. Mom has primary from August 1 until May 1 at 5pm. My client has from May 1 at 5 until July 31. He has to pay child support during her time and she has to pay on his time. They each get every other weekend and off Wednesday when they do not have primary custody. In 21-22 days my client has his child. I expect mom will be asking to settle around June.
Hell I impress myself sometimes.
Saturday, April 5, 2008
unreal (Friday)
As I blogged Wednesday a Judge on a temporary basis awarded baby momma and baby daddy true joint physical and legal custody for a week at a time. My secretary has not even had a chance to transcribe the written Order I dictated yet and there is already trouble.
Seems babby momma want the kid back in the old daycare, the same one that helped her play hide the baby. My client is adamant that the kid stay in the new daycare. So there we are - argueing over nothing.
This is why our state courts doesn’t favor joint physical and legal custody and require the Court to give one parent superior rights.
Seems babby momma want the kid back in the old daycare, the same one that helped her play hide the baby. My client is adamant that the kid stay in the new daycare. So there we are - argueing over nothing.
This is why our state courts doesn’t favor joint physical and legal custody and require the Court to give one parent superior rights.
My day (Thursday)
Well I had my little trial. Baby daddy has to pay $12,535.60 in back support and $2,225.00 in attorneys fees plus his regular $360 a month payment. In order to play off all of that he has to pay on average of $860 per month or $200 a week. If he misses a single payment he goes to jail, does not pass go and I get to charge more money to draft the arrest order. Hooray me. Boo deadbeat.
Then in honor of the mortgage crisis I foreclosed on 5 houses. Boo me. Hooray my wallet.
Then in honor of the mortgage crisis I foreclosed on 5 houses. Boo me. Hooray my wallet.
My week thus far (Wednesday)
By way of explaining things since I get called out for using jargon - A "temporary" anything hearing is a hearing designed to put in place certain rules until a full trial can be had. We are given no more than 15 minutes per side to present evidence. It is a lot of fun - lots of surprises. They are used in divorce and custody cases.
Monday - I started off the week with several temporary custody matters. It was a long day and I even completely settled a divorce but we have to wait the 60 days to finalize. As we leave my client who had insisted on joint physical and legal custody with the child living with him every Thursday-Sunday told me he really did not care about who had custody, or where the kid lived - he just didn't want to pay child support. Great end to the day.
Tuesday - I had depositions set for 1:30 in a case, about 930 the other attorney called and asked where I was. I explained I was noticed for depositions at 130. he said he had two set for the morning. I try to get along in pre-trial stuff so I said I would be there in a minute. I get out there about 6pm last night. Just in time to prep for today's hearing in Water Valley at 9am. The Valley is a 1 1/2 hour drive. I also had to prepare for depositions if an other matter set for 3 today.
Today - Argued the temporary custody case I wrote about on Friday. It is clear the girl is attempting to manipulate things, rather than truly being a suicide threat she is a poor, poor pitiful me, no one loves me so I will eat dirt kinda girl. But her journal is pretty explosive stuff. I have her in tears with less than 6 minutes of questions. Her attorney is did his best and couldn't’t stop it. The outcome shocked both myself and the other attorney. This Judge ordered a true joint physical and legal custody order pending trial. Each parent has this 2 year old from 6 pm Friday until 6 pm the following Friday. This is unheard of from this Judge - he would refuse to sign off on this type of Order if the parties agreed to it, now here he is ORDERING it. He did make it clear that this would not be the final custody arrangement.
The other attorney and I went to lunch and talked about it. We decided it is either a) close to what they were doing prior to Feb.; b) my client made a much worse impression than either of us thought or c) to try and force them to work something out.
I settled the other suit with my client paying whooping $1,700.00. This lawsuit has been going on for 2 years and they had been asking for hundreds of thousands of dollars. I now get to prep for tomorrows trial
Tomorrow - I have a trial that is 2nd back up, which means the two trials ahead of us have to settle for us to have a trial. If I do not prepare we will go to trial - that is just Murphy's law. If I prepare and am ready it will be reset for few months down the road and I get to prep all over again.
Monday - I started off the week with several temporary custody matters. It was a long day and I even completely settled a divorce but we have to wait the 60 days to finalize. As we leave my client who had insisted on joint physical and legal custody with the child living with him every Thursday-Sunday told me he really did not care about who had custody, or where the kid lived - he just didn't want to pay child support. Great end to the day.
Tuesday - I had depositions set for 1:30 in a case, about 930 the other attorney called and asked where I was. I explained I was noticed for depositions at 130. he said he had two set for the morning. I try to get along in pre-trial stuff so I said I would be there in a minute. I get out there about 6pm last night. Just in time to prep for today's hearing in Water Valley at 9am. The Valley is a 1 1/2 hour drive. I also had to prepare for depositions if an other matter set for 3 today.
Today - Argued the temporary custody case I wrote about on Friday. It is clear the girl is attempting to manipulate things, rather than truly being a suicide threat she is a poor, poor pitiful me, no one loves me so I will eat dirt kinda girl. But her journal is pretty explosive stuff. I have her in tears with less than 6 minutes of questions. Her attorney is did his best and couldn't’t stop it. The outcome shocked both myself and the other attorney. This Judge ordered a true joint physical and legal custody order pending trial. Each parent has this 2 year old from 6 pm Friday until 6 pm the following Friday. This is unheard of from this Judge - he would refuse to sign off on this type of Order if the parties agreed to it, now here he is ORDERING it. He did make it clear that this would not be the final custody arrangement.
The other attorney and I went to lunch and talked about it. We decided it is either a) close to what they were doing prior to Feb.; b) my client made a much worse impression than either of us thought or c) to try and force them to work something out.
I settled the other suit with my client paying whooping $1,700.00. This lawsuit has been going on for 2 years and they had been asking for hundreds of thousands of dollars. I now get to prep for tomorrows trial
Tomorrow - I have a trial that is 2nd back up, which means the two trials ahead of us have to settle for us to have a trial. If I do not prepare we will go to trial - that is just Murphy's law. If I prepare and am ready it will be reset for few months down the road and I get to prep all over again.
Friday, March 28, 2008
My dilemma
I have a custody hearing Wednesday where I represent the baby daddy against baby momma. Both have problems in their past and they share a child, where never married and now have gone their separate ways. This is not a problem for me. I do this day in and day out. I am a very aggressive attorney and take no prisoners. I love the battle that is an adversarial hearing. I have made a point of never apologizing for what I do in a courtroom – if I need to apologize then I should not do it.
That will not change but I am dreading Wednesday. I have gotten my hands on the baby momma’s journal. I spent the day reading it. At times I had to put it down and walk away. I have had several conversations with members of my firm about it. For a custody case it contains gold. I will have in her own words and handwriting enough evidence to bury her, to take her baby away from her and maybe even keep her from seeing the child without supervision.
That is the problem. I am certain my client has decided he can do better and has been an ass to her, even abusive to her in the past. He has traded up.
This girl has been given the short end of the stick and I am about to beat her with it. She has had a hard life, been taken advantage by the men in her life including my client. Three children by three men, her career goal now is to be a manager at Bumpers. At Christmas she wrote that she wanted to make sure that this was a wonderful Christmas for the two children she still has custody of since it will be the last one they spend together. The next entry is about hoping she has not scarred her children for life and that they can forget about her. It is clear she was thinking about killing herself.
I want to hug her and tell her the world is not that cold and evil, that things can get better. That even now, no matter how hard things are it can be better.
The only bright spot is that she has managed to hire an attorney that I consider to be one of the better ones around. He will do a good job. I have a call into him to settle this and have hinted at serious issues with her by asking just how stable she is and can she hold up under a serious cross-examination. I hope he takes the hint since in the cases we have had in the past I have never asked that.
What weighs on my mind is the suicide of a client of another attorney I blogged about in the past. I am not sure I could handle it is this girl decides life is not worth living because she lost this hearing.
That will not change but I am dreading Wednesday. I have gotten my hands on the baby momma’s journal. I spent the day reading it. At times I had to put it down and walk away. I have had several conversations with members of my firm about it. For a custody case it contains gold. I will have in her own words and handwriting enough evidence to bury her, to take her baby away from her and maybe even keep her from seeing the child without supervision.
That is the problem. I am certain my client has decided he can do better and has been an ass to her, even abusive to her in the past. He has traded up.
This girl has been given the short end of the stick and I am about to beat her with it. She has had a hard life, been taken advantage by the men in her life including my client. Three children by three men, her career goal now is to be a manager at Bumpers. At Christmas she wrote that she wanted to make sure that this was a wonderful Christmas for the two children she still has custody of since it will be the last one they spend together. The next entry is about hoping she has not scarred her children for life and that they can forget about her. It is clear she was thinking about killing herself.
I want to hug her and tell her the world is not that cold and evil, that things can get better. That even now, no matter how hard things are it can be better.
The only bright spot is that she has managed to hire an attorney that I consider to be one of the better ones around. He will do a good job. I have a call into him to settle this and have hinted at serious issues with her by asking just how stable she is and can she hold up under a serious cross-examination. I hope he takes the hint since in the cases we have had in the past I have never asked that.
What weighs on my mind is the suicide of a client of another attorney I blogged about in the past. I am not sure I could handle it is this girl decides life is not worth living because she lost this hearing.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Income
In response to an email I got based on my last blog I think maybe there is some misunderstanding about what I charge vs. what I make.
To use simple basic numbers, lets say for the sake of arguement I charge all o fmy clients $200 an hour across the board. ( I don’t -some case are billed hourly at various rates, some a flat fee, so based on a % of judgement). AND I can actually charge for 5 hours a day and everyone pays on time(if you want to see how hard it is - I challenge you to keep track of the time you actually work. Can’t count office chit chat, smoke/bathroom/walking around. And not every one pays, much less on time)
Out of that $200 an hour I pay/help pay:
1. the salary of 5-7 other attorneys if they do not cover thier own salary
2. the salary of 5-9 support staff
3. the debt service on the building
4. office expenses (the last copier cost us $22k on the 5 year lease plus per copy expense)
5. legal books/updates/web based research
6. advanced moneys on contengent fee cases
7. my law license fees
8. continuing education fees
9. diet coke/sprite my clients drink while meeting with me
10. malpractice insurance
11. debt service on $80k in student loans
My unpaid accounts recievable would give a true business man a stroke. I personally wrote off $150K in unpaid bills last year and still have about the same carried over.
Those who know me in person know I would not charge a dime if I could afford it. I love what I do, but I do have to eat, pay rent and child support. In fact i tend to give too much time away which is my own fault.
To the asshole who questioned my ethics and morals for wanting to charge $2000 for 4 criminal charges - go fuck yourself. Until you have done what I do you have no fucking clue about what it costs - money and emotion/stress.
Yeah I am rolling in money and getting rich - I never have had a debt collector call me about an unpaid bill. I live in a one bedroom apartment and wonder if I can afford to buy my little girl a bike to ride this summer or pay all the fees for her soccer/gym/karate.
To use simple basic numbers, lets say for the sake of arguement I charge all o fmy clients $200 an hour across the board. ( I don’t -some case are billed hourly at various rates, some a flat fee, so based on a % of judgement). AND I can actually charge for 5 hours a day and everyone pays on time(if you want to see how hard it is - I challenge you to keep track of the time you actually work. Can’t count office chit chat, smoke/bathroom/walking around. And not every one pays, much less on time)
Out of that $200 an hour I pay/help pay:
1. the salary of 5-7 other attorneys if they do not cover thier own salary
2. the salary of 5-9 support staff
3. the debt service on the building
4. office expenses (the last copier cost us $22k on the 5 year lease plus per copy expense)
5. legal books/updates/web based research
6. advanced moneys on contengent fee cases
7. my law license fees
8. continuing education fees
9. diet coke/sprite my clients drink while meeting with me
10. malpractice insurance
11. debt service on $80k in student loans
My unpaid accounts recievable would give a true business man a stroke. I personally wrote off $150K in unpaid bills last year and still have about the same carried over.
Those who know me in person know I would not charge a dime if I could afford it. I love what I do, but I do have to eat, pay rent and child support. In fact i tend to give too much time away which is my own fault.
To the asshole who questioned my ethics and morals for wanting to charge $2000 for 4 criminal charges - go fuck yourself. Until you have done what I do you have no fucking clue about what it costs - money and emotion/stress.
Yeah I am rolling in money and getting rich - I never have had a debt collector call me about an unpaid bill. I live in a one bedroom apartment and wonder if I can afford to buy my little girl a bike to ride this summer or pay all the fees for her soccer/gym/karate.
Money Money Money
Maybe I am just to expensive.
I just had a walk in wanting to hire me for 4 charges: simple possession (not his, his brother left it in his truck) switched tags, expired tags and revoked DL. I quoted $2000 in part because he could use a bath and was proud on having his DL revoked in 1994 and in part because it will be a long couple of days in city court.
Needless to say he did not hire me.
I just had a walk in wanting to hire me for 4 charges: simple possession (not his, his brother left it in his truck) switched tags, expired tags and revoked DL. I quoted $2000 in part because he could use a bath and was proud on having his DL revoked in 1994 and in part because it will be a long couple of days in city court.
Needless to say he did not hire me.
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Baby drama
A lot of what "family/domestic" lawyers do anymore in this area is related to custody. It could be part of a divorce, contempt or modificaion of a prior order or just a flat out custody fight between people never married. It can be very interesting and you learn a lot about people and human nature during custody battles, but in the never married category I see to very different groups - men and women. A shock I know.
If it is the man who comes in it generally breaks down to this: a) I know I have to pay child support and I want to see my child; b) It ain't mine and I want a DNA test (it normally is his) and c) I want custody. (This is not all that rare) and d) I want nothing to do with the crazy bitch. I'll pay if I have too for now - catch me if you can later.
On the female side it is much easier to group: a) he is a fucking bastard and he will never see my child, but I want child support, b) he is a fucking bastard and he will never see my child, but I want child support, c)he is a fucking bastard and he will never see my child, but I want child support, and d) he is OK and I will let him see my child.
After I spend 30 minutes or so listening to how this guy is a worthless piece of crap and never was any good, and explaining why he has rights to see the child if not have actual custody and arguing of what is fair and what isn't fair I ALWAYS want to say "Well you fucked him, not me. he couldn't have been all that bad and evil if you decided to drop your panties for him" But I never do. Just know that is what I am thinking when I smile at you while nodding my head and say "I understand".
Friday, February 1, 2008
Why I became a lawyer
Every once and a while someone will ask "hey Cigar whyd you become a lawyer, your some damn good looking and studly you should be in hollywierd making some of them there porn movies" Ok, maybe not the last part.
As you may or may not know I was a paramedic first in life. I had always wanted to be a paramedic ever since I saw DeSoto and Gage of the LA County Fire Department in the mid 70's tv show "Emergency". I was in fact the youngest paramedic in SC history at the time. I am sure by now someone younger has been trained. The county I worked for had to pass a new regulation to hire me. I was 18 and you had to be 21 to work for them. After a while I was burned out and very very arrogant (yes even more so than i am now) and only 21-22. I worked several different jobs until I decided to go back to college.
Somewhere along the way I heard of the Innocence Project and Barry Sheck and Peter Nuefeld. I admired the work they were doing. Here were two guys working thier asses off to free people who were wrongly convicted. Is there a better callig? And throw in Atticus Finch as a role model to aspire to. Hey who wouldnt want to do this. And based on TV I thought being a lawyer would be fun, interesting, well paying and I could make a difference. I was right about 2 of the 4. It is fun and interesting. Some months based on the hours worked verses money collected I make less than $10 and hour and tghings never change. That is the part TV always leave out - the money side. You have to collect money from your clients. think about it. When was the last time you say a TV lawyer charge a client or call asking where is the payment for fees?
So I workd my ass of to get my degree. I was the oldest person in the dorms - 24-28. It made me very popular - I could buy booze. Anyway I got my undergrad degree and then I had to look around for a law school. I was accpeted to several and decided to go to ole miss becuase even out of state tuition was cheaper than in state at South Carolina. Ole Miss was also a regional known school and to be honest to some degree John Grishams books might have played into it. Who knows.
I ended up here and got the law degree. I decided I actually like the place. In law school i got involved in immigration law mainly due to my then wife being an immigrant and a professor getting me an internship with the immigration court. That was where I found my calling - helping immigrants come to the US and helping asylum seekers get refuge. I did that for a while with a corporate firm that was more interested in immigration business law, but that is also how I ended up in LA and made my porn industry contacts. I left and started over as a family law attorney for legal aid.
And now I am a family law attorney who handles asylum law and some basic crimnal law. I gave up on the idea of the noble cause, but still work to do right by my clients - innocent or not, deserving or not.
In a way I have come full circle - my first job out of high school was helping people and here I am still trying to help people, just in a different way.
I guess I didn't really answer the question "why did I become a lawyer" but then again I don't know that I have an answer. I just did and i enjoy it. I live for the court room.
As you may or may not know I was a paramedic first in life. I had always wanted to be a paramedic ever since I saw DeSoto and Gage of the LA County Fire Department in the mid 70's tv show "Emergency". I was in fact the youngest paramedic in SC history at the time. I am sure by now someone younger has been trained. The county I worked for had to pass a new regulation to hire me. I was 18 and you had to be 21 to work for them. After a while I was burned out and very very arrogant (yes even more so than i am now) and only 21-22. I worked several different jobs until I decided to go back to college.
Somewhere along the way I heard of the Innocence Project and Barry Sheck and Peter Nuefeld. I admired the work they were doing. Here were two guys working thier asses off to free people who were wrongly convicted. Is there a better callig? And throw in Atticus Finch as a role model to aspire to. Hey who wouldnt want to do this. And based on TV I thought being a lawyer would be fun, interesting, well paying and I could make a difference. I was right about 2 of the 4. It is fun and interesting. Some months based on the hours worked verses money collected I make less than $10 and hour and tghings never change. That is the part TV always leave out - the money side. You have to collect money from your clients. think about it. When was the last time you say a TV lawyer charge a client or call asking where is the payment for fees?
So I workd my ass of to get my degree. I was the oldest person in the dorms - 24-28. It made me very popular - I could buy booze. Anyway I got my undergrad degree and then I had to look around for a law school. I was accpeted to several and decided to go to ole miss becuase even out of state tuition was cheaper than in state at South Carolina. Ole Miss was also a regional known school and to be honest to some degree John Grishams books might have played into it. Who knows.
I ended up here and got the law degree. I decided I actually like the place. In law school i got involved in immigration law mainly due to my then wife being an immigrant and a professor getting me an internship with the immigration court. That was where I found my calling - helping immigrants come to the US and helping asylum seekers get refuge. I did that for a while with a corporate firm that was more interested in immigration business law, but that is also how I ended up in LA and made my porn industry contacts. I left and started over as a family law attorney for legal aid.
And now I am a family law attorney who handles asylum law and some basic crimnal law. I gave up on the idea of the noble cause, but still work to do right by my clients - innocent or not, deserving or not.
In a way I have come full circle - my first job out of high school was helping people and here I am still trying to help people, just in a different way.
I guess I didn't really answer the question "why did I become a lawyer" but then again I don't know that I have an answer. I just did and i enjoy it. I live for the court room.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Holy Crap
This week continues to court streak. On Monday I was in court until 6:30pm. I was able to turn the TRO into a custody order pending trial. By the time my clients got home "someone" had trown a cider block through their front bay window, poisioned the two dog and poured clorox everywhere.
In another case from Monday I was assualted by my clients brother in court. He almost got tasered. That case along with one other got moved to Wednesday due to the heavy case load on Monday. The Judge was there hearing cases until 10 pm.
After I got back to my office Tuesday I talked to witnesses in this case and discovered my client was doing something very very illegal with regards to the witnesses. So I did what any good attorney would do, I file a motion to be released from the case without telling the judge why i want off. (I can't - attorney client privilege prevents me even though she is breaking the law) Today was that motion hearing. I was allowed to get off the case, the brother acted like a jack ass and he did get tasered. The Judge was not in a good mood.
The case just prior to tasor boy ended the worst possible way. Two other attorneys were arguing a TRO/Custody Order. The husband was present but the wife was not. There was talk about concern for childs safety and wifes mental state. All of this is pretty common in family law. Some times I think we forget how serious this stuff can be. The hearing gets interrupted by an emergency phone call for the wifes attorney, who is a young guy with maybe two years experiance. I am where I can see him and know exactly what the call is from his reaction. He walks back into court looking sick and shell shocked. He blunty announces that his client has just shot herself in the parking lot of his office. This is how the husband hears his wife is dead and his children lost thier mother forever. I think every attorney was stunned, most even cried. I did and I did not even know the lady. Just the shear shock of it. The Judge had to leave the bench to cry. Court restarts 2 hours later when taser boy acts up - zap.
Then I had the great joy of arguing another TRO/Custody order pending trial. We wrapped up at 230pm. A TRO was in place forbiding ANY contact between the husband and wife. The kids are 17, 18 and 20 so no true custody order - the kids can do what they want. (in this state the age of maority is 21 and child support goes to 21). At 315 I get a call from the sherrifs office. the husband kicked in the front door, stomped the hell out of his 18 year old daughter becuase she would not tell him were my client was. She pulls up and he rams her car and flees.
I am now at home, skipped gym with my little girl who turns 5 tomorrow. She is safely in the bedroom watcing fosters home for imaginary friends. I will settle in to read the new John Grisham novel, but first I will get down my old service weapon, a compact .40, reload it and will be packing heat again for a while - three nut jobs on the loose. Great job huh?
In another case from Monday I was assualted by my clients brother in court. He almost got tasered. That case along with one other got moved to Wednesday due to the heavy case load on Monday. The Judge was there hearing cases until 10 pm.
After I got back to my office Tuesday I talked to witnesses in this case and discovered my client was doing something very very illegal with regards to the witnesses. So I did what any good attorney would do, I file a motion to be released from the case without telling the judge why i want off. (I can't - attorney client privilege prevents me even though she is breaking the law) Today was that motion hearing. I was allowed to get off the case, the brother acted like a jack ass and he did get tasered. The Judge was not in a good mood.
The case just prior to tasor boy ended the worst possible way. Two other attorneys were arguing a TRO/Custody Order. The husband was present but the wife was not. There was talk about concern for childs safety and wifes mental state. All of this is pretty common in family law. Some times I think we forget how serious this stuff can be. The hearing gets interrupted by an emergency phone call for the wifes attorney, who is a young guy with maybe two years experiance. I am where I can see him and know exactly what the call is from his reaction. He walks back into court looking sick and shell shocked. He blunty announces that his client has just shot herself in the parking lot of his office. This is how the husband hears his wife is dead and his children lost thier mother forever. I think every attorney was stunned, most even cried. I did and I did not even know the lady. Just the shear shock of it. The Judge had to leave the bench to cry. Court restarts 2 hours later when taser boy acts up - zap.
Then I had the great joy of arguing another TRO/Custody order pending trial. We wrapped up at 230pm. A TRO was in place forbiding ANY contact between the husband and wife. The kids are 17, 18 and 20 so no true custody order - the kids can do what they want. (in this state the age of maority is 21 and child support goes to 21). At 315 I get a call from the sherrifs office. the husband kicked in the front door, stomped the hell out of his 18 year old daughter becuase she would not tell him were my client was. She pulls up and he rams her car and flees.
I am now at home, skipped gym with my little girl who turns 5 tomorrow. She is safely in the bedroom watcing fosters home for imaginary friends. I will settle in to read the new John Grisham novel, but first I will get down my old service weapon, a compact .40, reload it and will be packing heat again for a while - three nut jobs on the loose. Great job huh?
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Miss me?
I am back. Did you miss me? If you didn't you can blow me where the pampers is. (if you know the movie reference then you have great taste in bad movies). I have got to say the past few weeks have been hectic as hell here in the grand mid-south.
An example: I was hired on Monday to handle a mess complicated custody case were a third party (my client) is attempting to get custody of a teenaged girl from her mother. This is not easy to do. Under the law of this state a parent is the preferred person to have custody. A third party must prove one of the following: abandonment, moral unfitness or that the parent is otherwise unfit. There is a case where one parent killed the other and the courts held that the living parent was not unfit to have custody once she got out of prison, so you can see it is a steep climb to win.
Anyway I digress, so I am hired on Monday about 5 pm to get custody, the child has been reported a runaway and or kidnapped. Local media get wind of it Tuesday morning – the story the lapdog reporter, I mean watch dog reporter want to run is "Local girl kidnapped, cops not doing anything". Anyway I call up bubba newsdog and talk to him and explain that if he runs that story they will have to run a retraction and my clients, one of which is the "kidnapped" girl will sue. That problem over.
I file the custody suit on Tuesday, call the judges admin asking for a Temporary Restraining Order hearing for Thursday or Friday since I have a MAJOR mediation in a personal injury case set for Wednesday and need Tuesday to go back over all the medical records one more time and talk to various claims rep so that the P.I. case can settle.
About 1:30 p.m. Tuesday the Judge calls, says she has read the petition and that in her mind the case cannot wait, come to b-ville at 4 and she will have a hearing. Ok, b-ville is a 40 minute drive from my office. I drop everything, call the clients, tell them to come to my office, we prep them for the hearing then fly down the road to court. We have a hearing, I type an order. On the way home clients get pulled over on an APB for the kidnap. I get that all cleared up. I get back to the office, fax that Order to the school and every local police department and FBI to make sure the kidnapping issue is cleared up.
I take a deep breath and now get to go back over medical records – it is 9 p.m.
We settle the P.I. case after six hours of mediation – which is basically a neutral attorney who will listen to both sides' evidence and play devils advocate while helping the parties negotiate a settlement. After 67 hours of total time spent on the case, it settles and I will get a whole $2000. I want to cry.
Random thought: I cannot decide if I want to punch Rachel Ray in the face to shut her up or screw her silly. I wonder is she goes once around the pan with e.v.o.o. to get lubed up.
An example: I was hired on Monday to handle a mess complicated custody case were a third party (my client) is attempting to get custody of a teenaged girl from her mother. This is not easy to do. Under the law of this state a parent is the preferred person to have custody. A third party must prove one of the following: abandonment, moral unfitness or that the parent is otherwise unfit. There is a case where one parent killed the other and the courts held that the living parent was not unfit to have custody once she got out of prison, so you can see it is a steep climb to win.
Anyway I digress, so I am hired on Monday about 5 pm to get custody, the child has been reported a runaway and or kidnapped. Local media get wind of it Tuesday morning – the story the lapdog reporter, I mean watch dog reporter want to run is "Local girl kidnapped, cops not doing anything". Anyway I call up bubba newsdog and talk to him and explain that if he runs that story they will have to run a retraction and my clients, one of which is the "kidnapped" girl will sue. That problem over.
I file the custody suit on Tuesday, call the judges admin asking for a Temporary Restraining Order hearing for Thursday or Friday since I have a MAJOR mediation in a personal injury case set for Wednesday and need Tuesday to go back over all the medical records one more time and talk to various claims rep so that the P.I. case can settle.
About 1:30 p.m. Tuesday the Judge calls, says she has read the petition and that in her mind the case cannot wait, come to b-ville at 4 and she will have a hearing. Ok, b-ville is a 40 minute drive from my office. I drop everything, call the clients, tell them to come to my office, we prep them for the hearing then fly down the road to court. We have a hearing, I type an order. On the way home clients get pulled over on an APB for the kidnap. I get that all cleared up. I get back to the office, fax that Order to the school and every local police department and FBI to make sure the kidnapping issue is cleared up.
I take a deep breath and now get to go back over medical records – it is 9 p.m.
We settle the P.I. case after six hours of mediation – which is basically a neutral attorney who will listen to both sides' evidence and play devils advocate while helping the parties negotiate a settlement. After 67 hours of total time spent on the case, it settles and I will get a whole $2000. I want to cry.
Random thought: I cannot decide if I want to punch Rachel Ray in the face to shut her up or screw her silly. I wonder is she goes once around the pan with e.v.o.o. to get lubed up.
Monday, January 7, 2008
I could not make this up
get asked a lot - here, on my other blog and in person -Cigar, how do you make this stuff up. The simple fact is i couldn't make this shit up if I tried. I will say i am pretty smart and funny (if you like sarcasim) but I am not very creative as far sa humor goes (legal strategy I amaze myself sometimes)
This is an actual body of an email from my secretary sent. names have been changed to protect the stupid.
Dipshit called and she tested positive for amphetamine and marijuana. She explained the marijuana in her system 1st that she was inhaling it because she was in the room with him and he smoked daily. Then she said she used it about 2 months ago and it must just still be in her system (yeah, right). She explained the amphetamine in her system as diet pills.
I told her I would give you the information but it may be Thursday before you could call her back because of your court schedule. She wants an apt with you and she wants to schedule a more in depth drug test to prove she hasn't used marijuana or inhaled it since leaving her husband.
Hilda has already called wanting the results, and Dora told her we would have to speak withyou before we could fax her anything.
The faxed results came through from Justice Network and she is not only positive for those two, but also for Benzodiazepines and she was caught with a condom trying to alter her urine specimen. Funny thing is they tested the first urine and it came up positive too (she could of at least got someone who was clean to help her cheat). Then they made her take another and these are the results from it.
This woman took dirty piss to a drug test? now this is an example of rocket science and not something i would have thought to make up. I LOVE my ob.
This is an actual body of an email from my secretary sent. names have been changed to protect the stupid.
Dipshit called and she tested positive for amphetamine and marijuana. She explained the marijuana in her system 1st that she was inhaling it because she was in the room with him and he smoked daily. Then she said she used it about 2 months ago and it must just still be in her system (yeah, right). She explained the amphetamine in her system as diet pills.
I told her I would give you the information but it may be Thursday before you could call her back because of your court schedule. She wants an apt with you and she wants to schedule a more in depth drug test to prove she hasn't used marijuana or inhaled it since leaving her husband.
Hilda has already called wanting the results, and Dora told her we would have to speak withyou before we could fax her anything.
The faxed results came through from Justice Network and she is not only positive for those two, but also for Benzodiazepines and she was caught with a condom trying to alter her urine specimen. Funny thing is they tested the first urine and it came up positive too (she could of at least got someone who was clean to help her cheat). Then they made her take another and these are the results from it.
This woman took dirty piss to a drug test? now this is an example of rocket science and not something i would have thought to make up. I LOVE my ob.
It is a monday
Today I had a follow up hearing on this and this . She showed up again today without an attorney and the Judge gave her more time to find one. Gee thanks Judge. Anyway I am fed up with her crap and set it down as a full fledged trial so we can have plenty of time to have a 15 minute hearing about why she can't obey the Judge.
On a related note, I have heard try and tell her side of things for almost 4 years now and it barely matches up with what my client says. Basically they agree that they had sex and that a child was born. until recently they even agreed he was daddy. According to her he has never shown an interest in the child. On the other hand I point to court records that go back to 1992 showing that he has attempted to be a part of the kids life. And like anything there are at least 3 sides to it - his/hers/the truth. I do not know what is the truth, but I do know that she has convinced herself that what she is saying is the gospel truth and based on her myspace page she has many followers. I am often tempted to post his version of the truth on her page, but I don't.
Oh well, time to get ready for tomorrows trial
On a related note, I have heard try and tell her side of things for almost 4 years now and it barely matches up with what my client says. Basically they agree that they had sex and that a child was born. until recently they even agreed he was daddy. According to her he has never shown an interest in the child. On the other hand I point to court records that go back to 1992 showing that he has attempted to be a part of the kids life. And like anything there are at least 3 sides to it - his/hers/the truth. I do not know what is the truth, but I do know that she has convinced herself that what she is saying is the gospel truth and based on her myspace page she has many followers. I am often tempted to post his version of the truth on her page, but I don't.
Oh well, time to get ready for tomorrows trial
Friday, January 4, 2008
Questions
Two questions I get asked a lot. 1. how can you defend someone accused of a crime and 2. why are you against the death penalty.
This story provides the answer to both:
DNA evidence clears Dallas man of rape charges after 27 years in prison
05:52 AM CST on Thursday, January 3, 2008
By STEVE McGONIGLE / The Dallas Morning Newssmcgonigle@dallasnews.com
Dallas County's record-setting list of innocent inmates cleared by DNA testing grew to 15 Wednesday when officials learned that Charles Allen Chatman could not have committed a rape for which he has served almost 27 years in prison. .
. Also Online
Other cases cleared since 2001 ..
State District Judge John Creuzot, who pushed for the genetic test that cleared Mr. Chatman, scheduled a hearing for this morning during which he is expected to order the 47-year-old man released on a personal bond and find him to be innocent.
"My attitude is that if the man is innocent, he needs to be free," the judge said.
The judge shared a steak lunch with Mr. Chatman in his courtroom after learning the test results. Mr. Chatman spent part of the afternoon being fitted for a new suit.
He has been serving a 99-year prison sentence for the 1981 rape of a Dallas woman during a home break-in. He is believed to be the longest-serving Dallas County inmate to be exonerated by genetic testing.
His attorney, Michelle Moore, described Mr. Chatman as "very, very nice." Most of his family died while he was in prison, she said. He probably suffers from learning disabilities and does not know how to use a computer or cellphone.
"He's lost his life," said Terri Moore, the first assistant district attorney.
A year ago, Judge Creuzot used the occasion of another inmate's exoneration hearing to urge District Attorney Craig Watkins to determine whether Mr. Chatman would be a candidate for a relatively new form of DNA testing known as Y-STR.
The judge, who filed for re-election Wednesday, said he became concerned after presiding over two previous DNA hearings on Mr. Chatman's case that the convicted man might be innocent.
The earlier tests on the rape kit taken from Mr. Chatman's alleged victim had proved inconclusive because of a small amount of genetic material. Mr. Chatman had been told that a third test might consume the remainder of the sample.
He recently agreed to the Y-STR testing, which has proved successful in identifying genetic markers from tiny DNA samples. The testing was performed by a Dallas laboratory before Christmas, and results excluded Mr. Chatman.
Ms. Moore, the defense attorney, and Mike Ware, the prosecutor overseeing the DNA testing, credited Judge Creuzot with pushing them to pursue testing.
Mr. Chatman, who remains in the Lew Sterrett Justice Center and could not be reached for comment, was four months shy of his 21st birthday when he was arrested by Dallas police in January 1981 and charged with aggravated rape. At the time, he was on four years' probation for a 1978 residential burglary conviction.
Picked in lineups
Mr. Ware, head of the district attorney's conviction integrity unit, said the rape victim first selected Mr. Chatman from a photographic lineup. She identified him a second time in a live lineup, Mr. Ware said.
Prosecutors said they were attempting to notify the victim Wednesday that Mr. Chatman had been cleared of the rape. She was said to be living in a nursing home.
Mr. Chatman's exoneration, which must be approved by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, would mark the 15th time since a new testing law took effect in 2001 that a Dallas County conviction has been discredited by DNA.
Most of those faulty convictions occurred during the tenure of District Attorney Henry Wade, whose office had a national reputation for hard-nosed prosecution.
The majority of the wrongful convictions included lineups or eyewitness identifications that often were uncorroborated by other evidence.
No other county in the nation has had as many exonerations by DNA.
That unenviable status prompted Mr. Watkins, a former criminal defense attorney, to launch his conviction integrity unit and agree to review almost 400 cases in which inmates had requested DNA testing and been denied.
'Sloppiness ... going on'
A partnership between Mr. Watkins and the nonprofit Innocence Project of Texas has reviewed about 80 cases and recommended that testing be done in eight. The review process on the remaining cases is expected to last another year, Mr. Ware said.
Ms. Moore, the first assistant to Mr. Watkins, said she was pleased the office was able to correct the wrong to Mr. Chatman. But she said she also was angry.
"What offends me about this is the sloppiness that was going on," she said. "You are supposed to turn over every stone. You are supposed to know what the truth is."
In addition to its review of cases for possible genetic testing, the prosecutor's office also wants to learn whether it can identify patterns that led to the wrongful convictions, Ms. Moore said.
*************************************************************
I would suggest the book Actual Innocence by Barry Scheck and Peter Nuefled and Jim Dwyer. There is a companion photobook called "The Innocents" photos by Tayrn Simon, commentary by Scheck and Nuefeld. I also strongly suggest "Tulia" by Nate Blankslee about the framing of local blacks by a out of control cop and all of the trouble to undo those convictions. John Grisham wrote a non fiction book calls Innocent Man that discusses several men convicted of crimes they did not commit.
I can go on and on. The fact is our system is not perfect, but it is better than the rest.
My state and my former law school have now started an innocence project here.
This story provides the answer to both:
DNA evidence clears Dallas man of rape charges after 27 years in prison
05:52 AM CST on Thursday, January 3, 2008
By STEVE McGONIGLE / The Dallas Morning Newssmcgonigle@dallasnews.com
Dallas County's record-setting list of innocent inmates cleared by DNA testing grew to 15 Wednesday when officials learned that Charles Allen Chatman could not have committed a rape for which he has served almost 27 years in prison. .
. Also Online
Other cases cleared since 2001 ..
State District Judge John Creuzot, who pushed for the genetic test that cleared Mr. Chatman, scheduled a hearing for this morning during which he is expected to order the 47-year-old man released on a personal bond and find him to be innocent.
"My attitude is that if the man is innocent, he needs to be free," the judge said.
The judge shared a steak lunch with Mr. Chatman in his courtroom after learning the test results. Mr. Chatman spent part of the afternoon being fitted for a new suit.
He has been serving a 99-year prison sentence for the 1981 rape of a Dallas woman during a home break-in. He is believed to be the longest-serving Dallas County inmate to be exonerated by genetic testing.
His attorney, Michelle Moore, described Mr. Chatman as "very, very nice." Most of his family died while he was in prison, she said. He probably suffers from learning disabilities and does not know how to use a computer or cellphone.
"He's lost his life," said Terri Moore, the first assistant district attorney.
A year ago, Judge Creuzot used the occasion of another inmate's exoneration hearing to urge District Attorney Craig Watkins to determine whether Mr. Chatman would be a candidate for a relatively new form of DNA testing known as Y-STR.
The judge, who filed for re-election Wednesday, said he became concerned after presiding over two previous DNA hearings on Mr. Chatman's case that the convicted man might be innocent.
The earlier tests on the rape kit taken from Mr. Chatman's alleged victim had proved inconclusive because of a small amount of genetic material. Mr. Chatman had been told that a third test might consume the remainder of the sample.
He recently agreed to the Y-STR testing, which has proved successful in identifying genetic markers from tiny DNA samples. The testing was performed by a Dallas laboratory before Christmas, and results excluded Mr. Chatman.
Ms. Moore, the defense attorney, and Mike Ware, the prosecutor overseeing the DNA testing, credited Judge Creuzot with pushing them to pursue testing.
Mr. Chatman, who remains in the Lew Sterrett Justice Center and could not be reached for comment, was four months shy of his 21st birthday when he was arrested by Dallas police in January 1981 and charged with aggravated rape. At the time, he was on four years' probation for a 1978 residential burglary conviction.
Picked in lineups
Mr. Ware, head of the district attorney's conviction integrity unit, said the rape victim first selected Mr. Chatman from a photographic lineup. She identified him a second time in a live lineup, Mr. Ware said.
Prosecutors said they were attempting to notify the victim Wednesday that Mr. Chatman had been cleared of the rape. She was said to be living in a nursing home.
Mr. Chatman's exoneration, which must be approved by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, would mark the 15th time since a new testing law took effect in 2001 that a Dallas County conviction has been discredited by DNA.
Most of those faulty convictions occurred during the tenure of District Attorney Henry Wade, whose office had a national reputation for hard-nosed prosecution.
The majority of the wrongful convictions included lineups or eyewitness identifications that often were uncorroborated by other evidence.
No other county in the nation has had as many exonerations by DNA.
That unenviable status prompted Mr. Watkins, a former criminal defense attorney, to launch his conviction integrity unit and agree to review almost 400 cases in which inmates had requested DNA testing and been denied.
'Sloppiness ... going on'
A partnership between Mr. Watkins and the nonprofit Innocence Project of Texas has reviewed about 80 cases and recommended that testing be done in eight. The review process on the remaining cases is expected to last another year, Mr. Ware said.
Ms. Moore, the first assistant to Mr. Watkins, said she was pleased the office was able to correct the wrong to Mr. Chatman. But she said she also was angry.
"What offends me about this is the sloppiness that was going on," she said. "You are supposed to turn over every stone. You are supposed to know what the truth is."
In addition to its review of cases for possible genetic testing, the prosecutor's office also wants to learn whether it can identify patterns that led to the wrongful convictions, Ms. Moore said.
*************************************************************
I would suggest the book Actual Innocence by Barry Scheck and Peter Nuefled and Jim Dwyer. There is a companion photobook called "The Innocents" photos by Tayrn Simon, commentary by Scheck and Nuefeld. I also strongly suggest "Tulia" by Nate Blankslee about the framing of local blacks by a out of control cop and all of the trouble to undo those convictions. John Grisham wrote a non fiction book calls Innocent Man that discusses several men convicted of crimes they did not commit.
I can go on and on. The fact is our system is not perfect, but it is better than the rest.
My state and my former law school have now started an innocence project here.
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Opening shots
To understand a lot of what I am going to write about today and probably several more times this year you need to accept as fact that attorneys in this area (if not everywhere) are prissy, vindictive gossipy crybabies with one exception me. I am not prissy.
Our Chancery (family/probate/land) court district has three judges who hear cases in a 6 county region with this county being the busiest with over 2500 new cases filed in 2007. In the past everything has run smoothly with a computer randomly assigning which judge would hear each case. That was until late last year.
In the past I have written about two lawyers who 1st filed a confidential complaint about a judge sexually harassing them, who then filed motions attaching the complaint to them for the world to see. The next step was to sue him in federal court. All of this to keep him from hearing their cases.
Today, the opening shot from the other attorneys was fired. Seems the that the female judge was represented by one of the two female attorneys who filed the compliant. By law the judge should have disclosed that to each and every attorney on the other side of cases she was hearing where her former attorney was involved. So that is the current battle. If the other attorneys win then the two complaining female attorneys can only have the last remaining judge hear their cases.
And that is what they wanted all along. It has long been known that there is a bias with this last judge towards these two. If that were then end of it I would have to Say getting the female judge kicked would be a dumb move which is why I haven't tried.
The final shot is still being investigated and drafted, but there is a large cabal of attorneys working to gather evidence to have the last judge at the very least kept from hearing cases the two females are working and possibly to have him removed from the bench altogether.
It is the goal of this cabal to destroy the careers of the two females. It should make for a interesting year. And before anyone thinks the good old boys are running the only two female attorneys out of town, the local bar association is about a 50/50 split and the cabal is composed mainly of women.
Our Chancery (family/probate/land) court district has three judges who hear cases in a 6 county region with this county being the busiest with over 2500 new cases filed in 2007. In the past everything has run smoothly with a computer randomly assigning which judge would hear each case. That was until late last year.
In the past I have written about two lawyers who 1st filed a confidential complaint about a judge sexually harassing them, who then filed motions attaching the complaint to them for the world to see. The next step was to sue him in federal court. All of this to keep him from hearing their cases.
Today, the opening shot from the other attorneys was fired. Seems the that the female judge was represented by one of the two female attorneys who filed the compliant. By law the judge should have disclosed that to each and every attorney on the other side of cases she was hearing where her former attorney was involved. So that is the current battle. If the other attorneys win then the two complaining female attorneys can only have the last remaining judge hear their cases.
And that is what they wanted all along. It has long been known that there is a bias with this last judge towards these two. If that were then end of it I would have to Say getting the female judge kicked would be a dumb move which is why I haven't tried.
The final shot is still being investigated and drafted, but there is a large cabal of attorneys working to gather evidence to have the last judge at the very least kept from hearing cases the two females are working and possibly to have him removed from the bench altogether.
It is the goal of this cabal to destroy the careers of the two females. It should make for a interesting year. And before anyone thinks the good old boys are running the only two female attorneys out of town, the local bar association is about a 50/50 split and the cabal is composed mainly of women.
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