Overlawyered: Chronicling The High Cost Of Our Legal System

“Plaintiff’s son was consistently left out of school exhibits and films . . . “

People can’t stop gawking at this Manhattan couple’s lawsuit against a $39,000/year private school. The lad in question was in kindergarten: “On one occasion, plaintiffs’ 5-year-old son was relegated to the role of ‘door-holder’ and ordered to hold the door for all of the other students.” Mr. and Mrs. Heinemann also say they got stuck with an unplanned $50,000 winning “bid” for a finger painting at a charity auction, and are additionally suing for the cost of continuing to employ their child’s $60,000/year chauffeur, “whose job they want to save.” [New York Post]

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9 Comments

  • I’m a 2nd grade teacher – Door Holder is a a much sought after position in the classroom.
    You get to high five or make faces at all your classmates. Then you get to bypass everyone else and go to the front of the line.

  • From the article, it seems like the original suit was perfectly reasonable. They think that they were defrauded $47, 000 and the school says that they weren’t. Then, for some reason all this ridiculous stuff about being a doorholder and hiring a chauffer got thrown in. I’m guessing it’s was to try and increase damages, but it actually just makes them look like greedy buffoons.

  • Door holder is a good gig if you can get it.

    But I read this article. It sounds made up. Insane.

  • Michael, I think the story is not very clear. Did they actually pay that money? If so, why?

    The hiring a chauffeur drives past “increasing damages” to utterly insane.

  • @Ron–

    Maybe the school moved forcefully to collect the $50,000, and that first pushed them to seek a lawyer. (Some colleges have become quite aggressive about collecting pledges.) But as for the quality of the legal advice they got, I agree with Michael.

  • Apparently the backstory on this “socialite” is far larger than a simple comment here, suffice to say that googling the name of a five year old normally doesn’t return the vast number of hits that Hudson did. But for starters this story should either pique or peak one’s interest in the family’s legal affairs.

    https://christopherfountain.wordpress.com/tag/hudson-cornelius-heinemann/

    • By Bumper

  • Why does this seem like a deleted scene from The Big Lebowski?

    @Bumper: you gotta admit though, that rug really ties the room together.

  • Can someone link to the complaint?

  • You can find it in Bumper’s link.