Overlawyered: Chronicling The High Cost Of Our Legal System

Archive for 2006

The Felonious Stomping of a Pet Fish

Courtesy of Dean’s World, a New York Appellate Court decision which all too easily brings to mind Monty Python’s immortal routine, “Eric the Pet Fish:”

The defendant argues that his “stomping of young Juan’s pet goldfish” is a misdemeanor pursuant to Agriculture and Markets Law §353 (unjustifiable killing of any animal, whether wild or tame), and not a felony because a fish is not a “companion animal” and his “stomping” did not constitute “aggravated cruelty” within the meaning of the statute.

The Appellate Court rejected the defendant’s fanciful interpretation of New York criminal statutes, ruling:

The defendant’s contention that all household pets are equal but some are more equal than others is manifestly not derived from the statute.

But can you get a license for that fish?

Dad Loses Suit Alleging Abusive Coach

Chalk another one up to the judicial ref.

A judge has made it safe again for high school coaches to lose their tempers, tossing out a lawsuit that accused a coach of inflicting “emotional distress” on a softball player by calling her “a 2-year-old.” (Arcadia, CA, Apr.4)

Attorney Michael Oddenino filed the lawsuit in October, alleging that Riggio yelled at his daughter when she played on the JV team last spring. He named Riggio, varsity Coach Ed Andersen and the Arcadia Unified School District in the lawsuit. He sought $3 million for intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress, negligence, a civil rights violation, and sex discrimination.The suit alleged that Riggio “took advantage of his position of authority to engage in an abusive pattern of excessive intimidation and humiliation of the female players, frequently calling them `idiots,’ and belittling them for minor errors.”

Oddenino is a family law lawyer who specializes in child custody issues. Go figure.

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Trial lawyers in GOP politics

Now it’s Pennsylvania: Donna Rovito has got the goods on the trial bar’s efforts to influence the forthcoming (May 16) Republican primary for a state senate seat in the Wilkes-Barre area. They’re backing Kingston mayor Jim Haggerty, who’s facing off against former gubernatorial aide Lisa Baker and three other candidates (Mar. 23, scroll to item 5). Update May 21: Haggerty loses.

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Constitutional Right to be a Jackass

One of our profession’s enfants terribles, Geoffrey Fieger, is back in court, this time defending his right to call Michigan appellate judges who ruled against him “jackasses” and “nazis.”

Fieger faces a reprimand from the Michigan Attorney Grievance Commission for insulting three state appellate judges on a radio talk show in 1999 after the judges overturned a $15 million verdict he won in a medical malpractice case.

Fieger’s lawyer, Michael Alan Schwartz, maintaining that Fieger’s comments outside the courtroom are protected by the First Amendment.

Summing up Fieger’s modus operandi nicely, Schwartz offers this:

“There’s no law that says you’ve got to be dignified.”

He also offers Standing Committee on Discipline v. Yagman, 55 F.3d 1430 and Craig v. Harney, 331 U. S. 367 (1947) to support his client’s right to criticize the judges.

UPDATE: Sorry folks, I neglected to include a link to the story. It is the Michigan Attorney Grievance Commission seeking to reprimand him. The Commission is “the investigative and prosecutorial arm of the Michigan Supreme Court for allegations of attorney misconduct.”

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Filial Overreaching Run Amok

Manhattan trusts and estates lawyer Edward F. Campbell Jr., counsel in the New York office of Chicago’s Vedder, Price, Kaufman & Kammholz, acted as “mediator, attorney and financial advisor” to his elderly parents in the 1996 sale of their home to….him.

Campbell “purchased” the 7 bedroom, 2 acre home in Lloyd Harbor, Long Island from his failing parents for no down payment and $1,000 a month, reserving to the parents a life estate, which isn’t turning out to be much of a consolation to the elder couple. A Suffolk County Supreme Court judge is skeptical.

No word on how Campbell’s eight siblings are taking the news.

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Pellicano fallout, cont’d

“While top entertainment lawyer Terry Christensen is the only attorney indicted so far in connection with [indicted private investigator Anthony] Pellicano, several others face litigation that could cripple their practices — and possibly break up their firms.

“The big problem, said Timothy Halloran, an expert in law firm liability at Murphy, Pearson, Bradley & Feeney in San Francisco, is that illegal activity such as wiretapping won’t be covered by malpractice insurance.” (Justin Scheck and Kellie Schmitt, “Will Law Firms Be Able to Weather Wiretap-Related Suits?”, The Recorder/Law.com, Mar. 28). More: Mar. 2, Feb. 18, etc.

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GAO Whistleblower on SDI

A senior Congressional investigator has accused his agency of covering up a scientific fraud among builders of a $26 billion system meant to shield the nation from nuclear attack. The disputed weapon is the centerpiece of the Bush administration’s antimissile plan, which is expected to cost more than $250 billion over the next two decades.The dispute is unusual. Rarely in the 85-year history of the G.A.O., an investigative arm of Congress with a reputation for nonpartisan accuracy, has a dissenter emerged publicly from its ranks.(NYT Apr. 2)

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