Family Law: March 2004 Archives

Amid worldwide publicity, the commissioners of rural Rhea County, Tennessee, quickly rescinded their call for legislation allowing the county to prosecute gays and lesbians for "crimes against nature"; Commissioner J.C. Fugate had asked the county attorney to find a way to "keep them out of here." ("Rhea County Commission Rescinds Gay Ban", The Chattanoogan, Mar. 18; "Tennessee county reverses ban on gays", Ellen Barry, "County Rescinds Vote to Ban Gay Residents", L.A. Times, Mar. 18; AP/San Francisco Chronicle, Mar. 19). By contrast, there's been much less attention paid to a proposed statute nearing enactment in supposedly civilized Virginia which might serve almost as effectively in sending a "don't live here" message to gays.

Yet another hazard of modern divorce: the judge may forbid you to use, alter or even turn on your personal computer -- work files and all -- lest you erase or overwrite some email or spreadsheet that your hubby might want to hold against you. "Stamford Superior Court Judge Kevin Tierney recently took the highly unusual step of ordering Mary Ranta to stop using her laptop altogether and immediately turn it over to the court clerk's office. ... Tierney said his goal was to preserve electronic data for discovery." (Thomas B. Scheffey, "Lockdown Ordered for Laptop", Connecticut Law Tribune, Mar. 16).

The Denver and Colorado bar associations have succeeded in getting the local Better Business Bureau to yank from the airwaves a 15-second ad premised on the notion that there might actually be some attorneys out there who exploit their clients. "You inherited a fortune ... You hired a lawyer ... Now it's his fortune," the announcer says in the ad. Declaring the ad offensive, the bar associations demanded a hearing before the BBB's own unfair-advertising panel. Jean Herman, president and chief executive of the Denver/Boulder BBB, agreed to pull the ad, saying, "I don't agree with them ... but I don't want to go around ticking people off". Ad spots warning about bad plumbers, mortgage lenders and limousine drivers will continue as usual in the BBB's "Check With Us First" campaign. Interestingly, Greg Martin, deputy executive director of both bar groups, said the groups would not agree to a suggestion that the offending line be amended from "You hired a lawyer" to "You hired the wrong lawyer." "Obviously, our goal was not to have that ad on TV anymore," Martin said. (John Accola, Rocky Mountain News, Mar. 13). David Giacalone (Mar. 16) has an excellent analysis. Of course, it remains perfectly normal and acceptable for lawyers' own ads to promote the idea that other people's professions and businesses are injurious and not always aboveboard.

Be sure to check out the last few sentences of the Rocky Mountain News article, in which Martin, the bar official, blasts the whole idea of applying to lawyers the BBB approach of documenting a record of complaints so that consumers can see for themselves which operators have numerous unresolved grievances outstanding. Martin says the BBB lacks any "special knowledge about attorneys" and says the profession is already highly regulated by its own (with emphasis, as we might add, on its own) disciplinary committees. Now suppose that some other profession or industry -- medicine, say -- were to assert that its mysteries are so esoteric, and its success in self-regulation so complete, that lay observers should not presume even to compare notes with each other on their bad experiences with it. Hard to imagine, these days, isn't it?