“Not getting any better,” in the opinion of HALT, the consumer-protection group that looks out for the interests of legal clients. The group has issued a report card rating each of the 50 state lawyer grievance systems, updating a similar effort four years ago. Worst state: Utah. Worst big state: California, ranked #46. Best state: Connecticut. Best big state: Pennsylvania (yes, really). (David Giacalone, Mar. 8).
Posts Tagged ‘Pennsylvania’
Flying the trial lawyer skies
Duly noted: Pennsylvania state treasurer and U.S. Senate candidate Robert P. Casey Jr. last June made his first fund-raising trip outside the East Coast, flying to Dallas aboard a private jet owned by the law firm of Baron & Budd, poster kids for legal ethics in the asbestos realm. “Casey flew out of Dallas with more than $71,000, including $28,000 from employees of Baron and Budd.” (Carrie Budoff, “Money at center of Senate contest”, Knight Ridder/Centre Daily Times, Feb. 13)(OpenSecrets.org). Similar: Jan. 8, 2001 (Sen. Edward Kennedy).
Trip on your mail? Sure, you can sue
By a 7-1 vote, the Supreme Court decided that current law does not bar a lawsuit against the Postal Service for negligence by a Pennsylvania woman who was injured when she tripped on mail that the postman had left on her front porch. The Postal Service says it is re-evaluating its standards for leaving mail on people’s porches when they are away (as opposed to making them come pick it up at the post office), but will probably not change things. (“Woman who tripped on mail can sue”, AP/CNN, Feb. 22; Pete Williams, MSNBC Daily Nightly, Feb. 22)(Dolan v. USPS, main opinion/dissent, both PDF).
Phila. judge: no right to anonymous online disparagement
Watch what you say about lawyers (and everyone else), cont’d: a “Philadelphia judge has ruled that a valid defamation claim trumps any right to speak anonymously on the Internet….Common Pleas Judge Albert W. Sheppard Jr. ordered the operator of two now-defunct Web sites to turn over the identities of the anonymous authors of comments on the sites that allegedly defamed a Philadelphia law firm….In the suit, the Klehr Harrison firm complains that its reputation was severely disparaged by comments on the two sites that falsely accused its lawyers of being ‘thieves,’ committing ‘fraud’ and ‘lying’ to a judge.” Although courts in some other states have protected anonymous online commenters from demands that their identity be disclosed, Sheppard said Pennsylvania law was not obliged to follow that path. (Shannon P. Duffy, “Law Firm’s Defamation Claim Found to Trump Critics’ Internet Anonymity”, The Legal Intelligencer, Jan. 23). For more on the legal hazards of criticizing Pennsylvania lawyers and judges, see Nov. 30, 2003, Mar. 16, 2004, and Oct. 24-25, 2001.
Comments are open (be very careful, please).
“Court decision may frighten fund-raisers”
More on deep-pocket liability for crime, this time from Pennsylvania:
Reversing a lower court, the state Supreme Court ruled 4-2 Wednesday that the parents of a 10-year-old girl assaulted while selling candy for the Punxsutawney Area School District can sue the companies involved in the fund-raiser.
Lawyers on both sides of the case said the decision was likely to have a chilling effect on the wide range of for-profit businesses that help schools and other organizations raise money by sending children door to door.
A lawsuit against the school district was previously dismissed in federal court.
Attorney David Long, who represents the plaintiffs, said school districts “are begging for a lawsuit” if they continue to use such methods to raise funds….
In a dissenting opinion, Chief Justice Ralph Cappy wrote that he believes the girl’s side ultimately won’t prevail. He said that the fund-raising entities did not need to warn that there “exist in the world evil people who could possibly cause intentional harm to minor students.”
(Eleanor Chute, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Dec. 30).
Rear Window
An amorous pair of University of Pennsylvania students coupled publicly in front of (and against) a dorm window facing another high-rise dorm; several students with views took photographs, and photographs, as even blurry photographs with three-pixel-long depictions of naughty parts of indeterminate gender do, got passed around by e-mail and ended up on various websites. The University Office of Student Conduct has since charged one of the photographers with sexual harassment, which would go on his permanent record. The next question is what the university will do to the Daily Pennsylvanian, which publishes one of the photos in its article. (Jason Schwartz, “Racy photo lands student in trouble”, Nov. 30 (via Fark); Regina Medina, “Sex-act pix shake Penn”, Philadelphia Daily News, Dec. 1 (via Throwing Things)) .
Update: A commenter informs us that AP reports that Penn has dropped the charges.
Second Update: Dropping charges doesn’t end matters, of course.
[Attorney] Jordan Koko issued a statement on [the photographed student’s] behalf.
“My client is emotionally shattered from this extremely disturbing ordeal. The intense focus on this matter into my client’s identity and image has imposed exceptional emotional and psychological harm,” the statement read.
Koko added that his client’s privacy was invaded in violation of state law and her constitutional rights. He said she “will pursue all her legal options.”
Constitutional rights? Someone is unclear on the concept. (Jason Schwartz, “Photographer escapes charges”, Daily Pennsylvanian, Dec. 2). The FIRE blog is similarly unimpressed with Koko’s reasoning.
$3.36M for blind woman replaced by blind woman
Christine L. Boone was fired as director of the Pennsylvania Bureau of Blindness and Visual Services (allegedly for “insubordination” when she refused to carry out a superior’s directive regarding making a college aid program more available to students who weren’t receiving merit scholarships) and was replaced by another blind woman, Pamela Shaw. Nevertheless, Boone sued through her lawyer Arch Stokes, alleging that she was discriminated against because of her blindness, though the AP’s quote of Stokes’ opening statement of the federal trial before U.S. District Judge Sylvia H. Rambo makes it sound like a civil-service dispute. Boone only received $180,000 of the $1 million in the “future lost wages” she sought, but the $1.5 million for emotional distress should provide solace. Boone will ask the judge to reinstate her to her job; the AP did not get comment from Shaw, who currently holds the position. (Mark Scolforo, AP, Nov. 28; Mark Scolforo, AP/Boston Herald, Nov. 8). The National Federation of the Blind of Pennsylvania opposed Boone’s firing; that may or may not make it a bad decision, but a bad decision isn’t federally actionable, only a discriminatory one is.
Today’s police chase lawsuit roundup III
- Antonio Chatman has already pled guilty to charges of fleeing police (the third time he’s been in trouble for doing so in his lengthy criminal history) and resisting arrest, but now claims that he jumped upon a Dumpster to give himself up, and sued the city of Johnstown and police officer Michael Page over its use of Obi, a police dog that bit him when he fought the apprehending dog. A jury didn’t buy his story.
On Thursday afternoon, Page shook hands with and thanked the jurors who cleared him. The 35-year-old also said the threat of a lawsuit can haunt officers as they make split-second decisions on the street.
“You have these type of things in the back of your mind,” Page said. “And unfortunately, that hesitation may cause me or somebody else to get hurt.”
Chatman’s attorneys argue that Page should have been equipped with a baton, though Page was over 50 feet away. (Mike Faher, “Jurors clear police dog”, Tribune-Democrat, Nov. 18; Id., “Police defend dog accused of biting”, Nov. 16; Id., “Officers testify in dog-bite lawsuit”, Nov. 15; Id., “Police-dog bite lawsuit begins”, Nov. 14). The district court had granted summary judgment, but the Third Circuit reversed (as the law required them to do) because of the “he said, he said” factual dispute. Unless Pennsylvania prosecutes Chatman for perjury, he will suffer no consequences for bringing the lawsuit.
- Patrick Sterling was fleeing police after being caught drag racing when he lost control of his Honda Civic and killed a thirteen-year-old pedestrian, Dennis Howard. So, of course, the family is suing the town of Orange. (Gerard A. Frank, “City faces lawsuit in boy’s death due to chase”, East Orange Record, Nov. 17; Scott Weinberger, “Family’s Claim About Cop Unfounded”, WCBS, Nov. 11).
- A Houston policeman complains about the safety implications of the city’s implementation of police-chase regulations. “Basically, that’s telling the crooks out there to just go on and do what you want and get away with it, because we’re not going to be chasing you.” The city denies that the revisions are the result of lawsuit fears, though it has been subjected to litigation over an innocent killed by a criminal fleeing police. (Jeff McShan, “HPD: To chase or not to chase”, KHOU, Nov. 23).
- An interview of a teenage car thief provides more support for the proposition that regulating police chases just encourages criminals to drive dangerously more often: “The police in the District would see us and chase us, but once they saw us go over 70 miles an hour they stopped.” In the words of one policeman, “If the [DC and Maryland] police were allowed to do their job and chase stolen cars, people wouldn’t run from the police. They don’t have this problem in Virginia. If you steal a car in Arlington, the Virginia State Police will chase you all the way to Georgia.” DC has gotten sufficiently lawless that Police Chief Charles Ramsey’s car has been stolen. (Michael Patrick Carney, “‘Don’t hurt me, I’m just a kid'”, Washingtonian, Dec. 2005).
Earlier coverage: Oct. 26; Mar. 29; Mar. 15 and links therein.
“Doctor says FEMA ordered him to stop treating hurricane victims”
By reader acclaim:
In the midst of administering chest compressions to a dying woman several days after Hurricane Katrina struck, Dr. Mark N. Perlmutter was ordered to stop by a federal official because he wasn’t registered with the Federal Emergency Management Agency. “I begged him to let me continue,” said Perlmutter, who left his home and practice as an orthopedic surgeon in Pennsylvania to come to Louisiana and volunteer to care for hurricane victims. “People were dying, and I was the only doctor on the tarmac (at the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport) where scores of nonresponsive patients lay on stretchers. Two patients died in front of me.
“I showed him (the U.S. Coast Guard official in charge) my medical credentials. I had tried to get through to FEMA for 12 hours the day before and finally gave up. I asked him to let me stay until I was replaced by another doctor, but he refused. He said he was afraid of being sued. I informed him about the Good Samaritan laws and asked him if he was willing to let people die so the government wouldn’t be sued, but he would not back down. I had to leave.”
In a formal response to Perlmutter’s story, FEMA said it does not accept the services of volunteer physicians:
“We have a cadre of physicians of our own,” FEMA spokesman Kim Pease said Thursday. “They are the National Disaster Medical Team. … The voluntary doctor was not a credentialed FEMA physician and, thus, was subject to law enforcement rules in a disaster area.”
However, Perlmutter says once back in Baton Rouge his group
went to state health officials who finally got them certified — a simple process that took only a few seconds.
“I found numerous other doctors in Baton Rouge waiting to be assigned and others who were sent away, and there was no shortage of need,” he said.
(Laurie Smith Anderson, The Advocate (Baton Rouge), Sept. 16; Toby Harnden, “‘I could have saved her life but was denied permission'”, Daily Telegraph (UK), Sept. 18).
Campaign finance law censorship
Now it’s being deployed on behalf of Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) against the Scranton Times-Tribune. The National Republican Senatorial Committee, backing Santorum, filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission charging that the newspaper may have unlawfully made a “corporate contribution” to Santorum’s opponent, Bob Casey Jr., by printing in promotional material a mock headline that read “Casey to run for Senate”. (Carrie Budoff, “Scranton paper’s promo an issue”, Wilkes-Barre Times-Leader, Aug. 16; Brett Marcy, “GOP files complaint of paper’s Casey ‘ad'”, Aug. 19; Ryan Sager, “Dirty Speech Trick”, New York Post, Aug. 19; Sager’s blog, Aug. 19 and again). For more campaign finance law censorship, see Jul. 11.