Be nice to your children
On a lighter note, take a look at DoNotVoteforMyDad.com to see why we all need to stay on good terms with our children.
The blog is apparently the work of the daughter and son-in-law of an Oklahoma lawyer who is running for District Judge. NBC did a nice video on the story.
488,724 hits as of today on the blog. Someone is paying attention.
Deeds not words — Trial Lawyers as a positive for American Democracy
If you’ve followed my writings over the years, you know I believe that civil trial lawyers are an important part of the liberty protections our founders incorporated in American constitutional democracy.
I found a blog note on the Perlmutter & Schuelke, LLP (they are Austin, Texas lawyers) website that is brief and to the point and I quote it verbatim here:
“For the last decade, trial lawyers have been the victims of one of the most successful marketing campaigns ever. Those of us that choose to represent victims of others’ carelessness have been portrayed as sharks, snakes, or worse. It seems that “trial lawyer” is now close to a cuss word.
“But trial lawyers do an amazing amount of good for the Country. Today’s National Law Journal has just such a story, describing how twenty Minn. law firms are banding together to provide pro bono representation to many of the victims of the 2007 Minneapolis bridge collapse. One firm (ironically a firm representing the defendants in one suit I have) has agreed to pay $1 million to an engineering firm to help investigate the collapse. All for free.
“And this conduct isn’t unique. Following the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, the American Trial Lawyer’s Association (now AAJ) founded Trial Lawyers Care, a non-profit designed to provide free legal services to the victims of the Sept. 11th terrorist attacks. The project, which was the largest pro bono project in the history of American jurisprudence, has expanded to other issues, such as trying to help victims of Hurricane Katrina.
“But the good work goes on even at the local level. I think I’m fairly representative of the trial lawyers in Austin. Not only does my firm engage in significant pro bono efforts, but I serve on the boards of local non-profits, am an alumnus of Leadership Austin (class of 2006 — Best Class Ever), volunteer at an elementary school in East Austin, coach my kids’ youth sports teams, and am active in my church. And I’m not unique. You can find various trial lawyers in leadership positions all over Austin helping make this town better for all of us.
“So the next time you hear someone throw out the phrase “trial lawyer” as an intended insult, I hope you’ll at least take a minute to appreciate that we do good work too.”
___
Now, okay, I don’t expect to a few good thoughts to change everyone’s thinking on whether trial lawyers are angels or devils. But if deeds are more important than words, shouldn’t we be focusing more on what trial lawyers actually do versus what people say about them?
Japan reintroduces the jury after complaints that its justice system is “unfair and arduous”
Obviously, we’re big fans of the jury system, which we believe is pure democracy in action.
Japan has often been held out as a model of a society with an exemplary justice system, when critics complain the U.S. has too many lawyers they very often cite Japan as their primary example.
So, it was with great interest we saw this report from the Associated Press. The story pretty much speaks for itself:
August 2, 2009
Japan holds 1st criminal jury trial since WWII
Associated Press Writer
Japan opened its first jury trial since World War II on Monday under a major overhaul of a legal system that has often been criticized as unfair and arduous.
Six jurors are working with three judges to hand down a verdict for 72-year-old Katsuyoshi Fujii, who has been charged with murder in the fatal stabbing of a 66-year-old neighbor in May.
Japanese trials — which up to now have been decided by panels of judges — have long been criticized as lacking in transparency and taking years to reach a verdict.
Police interrogate suspects in closed rooms without an attorney present, a practice that critics say leads to coerced confessions that have convicted the innocent. Criminal trials have a 99 percent conviction rate.
In the past, defendants’ pleas that their confessions were coerced have fallen on deaf ears. Proponents of the jury system hope that jurors will be more likely to consider such claims and that a ordinary citizen on the jury might in general be more sympathetic than judges have been in the past.
“With the change, trials will become more democratic,” Justice Minister Eisuke Sato said. “We hope to achieve a justice system that is speedier, more accessible and reliable.”
Japan launched a jury trial system in 1928, but dropped it in 1943 as the country headed into chaos with World War II. The system was never popular because legal professionals opposed allowing regular people as jurors, and defendants had to pay legal fees.
Much remains uncertain for the first postwar jury trial, opening in Tokyo District Court.
Expectations are high for emotional drama and engaging arguments long associated with American courtrooms.
One change is certain. The verdict and sentencing are scheduled to come in just four days, to allow jurors to return to their regular lives.
Fujii’s lawyers say he is pleading guilty but that they are asking for leniency in sentencing because he has expressed remorse.
Murder carries a maximum penalty of death in Japan, although it’s unlikely in a case involving one victim.
The son of the victim is expected to take the stand to plead with the jurors, according to the court. His mother was stabbed to death, allegedly after a quarrel, the court said.
“This is a historic trial, and I feel I must do my best to be up to the job,” prosecutor Tetsuo Maeda told reporters on NKH TV news, as he headed into the courtroom, where jury selection started in the morning.
Japan is set to hear about 2,000 to 3,000 jury trials per year, all involving serious crimes such as murder and kidnapping. About 300,000 candidates are being randomly selected from eligible voters nationwide annually to serve jury duty each year.
Since 2004, when the nation decided on the new jury system, legal experts have held seminars to make trials easier to understand and have held about 300 mock trials.
Some people are still reluctant to serve on a jury.
“It is such a heavy responsibility to cast judgment on other people,” said Tomoe Obata, a 49-year-old office worker, who attended a mock trial earlier this year. “What if I’m assigned to a murder case and we are asked to consider the death penalty?”
With the arrival of a jury trial, Japanese will have a chance to play a bigger role in doling out justice, Bar Association President Makoto Miyazaki said in a recent interview with The Associated Press.
“A more transparent and fair criminal justice system serves everyone’s interests,” he said.
We’ve updated the Website and I’m at AAJ talking about health care and ERISA
If you’ve visited before, you’ll notice we’ve updated our website to take it to the next level, I think it looks great, hope you do too. (Thanks Sumner)
I’m at the American Association for Justice summer convention in San Francisco for the next few days. This is a great organization that brings together the best and the brightest in the plaintiff trial bar and it’s great fun just hanging out with lawyers from the 50 different states and talking shop.
Since AAJ is Washington D.C. focused, there is naturally a good deal of talk about what is happening with President Obama’s push to create a national health care system. I spent half an hour in the hotel lobby yesterday debating the issue with a young salesman from a large health care corporation and naturally he was skeptical about any government changes to our current system.
Where my personal interest lies is in ERISA and whether that law will be modified so I can better assist my clients with long term disability claims who are being treated unfairly by their insurance companies.
ERISA stands for the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. It’s a 1974 federal law that covers just about all employer provided health plans and LTD insurance falls into that category (it doesn’t apply to government or religious groups).
As it’s set up now, ERISA takes away your ability to file a lawsuit for the full remedies generally available when an insurance carrier acts unfairly, an area of law known as “insurance bad faith.” As a practical matter, the law is so protective of insurance companies that they feel comfortable denying meritorious claims, since the worst that will happen is a judge might order them to pay the benefits they owe anyways and maybe some attorneys fees.
We help people prepare their disability claims packages on an hourly fee basis an represent them in federal court in ERISA litigation on a hybrid hourly/contingent fee basis to try to make the process more affordable. But if Congress and the President restore bad faith rights to LTD insureds by changing ERISA (the Wall Street Journal hinted that might happen, lawyers here at AAJ aren’t so sure it’s in the cards), then that could go a long ways towards making the playing field a leveler place for people whose disability claims are unfairly denied.
