Overlawyered: Chronicling The High Cost Of Our Legal System

Posts Tagged ‘ethics’

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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Coaching police experts

Lawrence Taylor at DUIblog (Mar. 17, via Cernovich) has got the goods on a coaching memo given by the San Diego Police Department to the technical experts they put on the stand to testify as to drivers’ blood-alcohol levels (emphasis in original memo):

You will always mix any tube with an anticoagulent [sic] 10 times (you count the inversions). The important things to remember is that you always follow the same procedure, so even though you don’t remember this particular individual, you know that you drew the person following our standard procedure.

As Taylor observes, the witnesses are instructed to testify under oath to an account calculated to help the prosecution prevail, “not as to what they actually did and what they know to be true in a specific case”.

For more on witness-coaching, see Sept. 10, 1999, Sept. 22-24, 2000, and, of course, our many entries on the famous Baron & Budd witness memo scandal.

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Update: Chrysler asks for Fabila lawyer to be disbarred

(Earlier coverage: Jul. 10, 2003 and links therein.) Two of the three lawyers behind a fraud where plaintiffs’ lawyers falsified evidence and tried to bribe police officers to hide the fact that their client fell asleep at the wheel are still practicing law. The attorneys still haven’t paid the sanction against them. In a radio interview for DaimlerChrysler, Steve Hantler calls for more Texas legislature oversight over the bar. (David Shepardson, “Chrysler takes fight to lawyers”, Detroit News, Mar. 21).

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After the lawsuit settlement, a spending spree

When big-ticket lawsuits are settled, a trust fund is often established for the future maintenance of the person whose injury occasioned the suit. How secure are these trust funds from being raided and squandered by faithless guardians? In New Jersey, apparently not very secure:

Calling it an “extremely sad case,” a judge on Friday sentenced a Fair Haven woman to seven years in prison for misappropriating much of her disabled daughter’s $2.8 million trust to buy drugs and a Porsche, among other things….[Barbara] Marschall in October admitted misappropriating funds from the $2.8 million special-needs trust established through a settlement of a medical malpractice lawsuit against Monmouth Medical Center, Long Branch. She did so between 1996 and 2004. The funds were intended to be used for services and other care for her daughter, Liza, now 20, to supplement care provided by Medicaid.

According to an assistant Monmouth County prosecutor, Marschall, an admitted heroin and cocaine addict, by 2002 had “spent about $614,000 she had received as an award from the medical malpractice settlement in 1995, then turned to the trust fund for Liza, who was born with neurological problems and cerebral palsy. By December 2004, only about $100,000 of the trust fund remained.”

Since it’s common for large funds of money to be set aside for purposes of covering future medical and personal needs for disabled plaintiffs, at least two questions suggest themselves. First, how frequently are such moneys dissipated (whether through criminal depredation, as here, or simply through less spectacular failings of stewardship) before they were supposed to run out? Second, given that they owe their existence in most cases to legal action, shouldn’t such trust funds be better protected from guardians’ criminality or incompetence? Wasn’t anyone required to ask questions — or call in an auditor, or withhold their co-signature — as this mother drained the trust fund at a rate of more than $100,000 a month over more than two years? (Karen Sudol, “7 years for raiding fund of infirm girl”, Asbury Park Press, Feb. 11; Christine Varno, “F.H. woman sentenced for embezzling”, Red Bank Hub, Feb. 16)(via Rovito).

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Lawyer discipline systems

“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).

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Judge resigns in Ky. fen-phen scandal

Last May 10 we reported on the questions that were being asked about a sealed settlement of Kentucky fen-phen claims which had included (along with vast sums in legal fees) the quiet diversion of $20 million into a mysterious new charitable entity called the Kentucky Fund for Healthy Living. Now the mystery has turned to scandal: the judge who approved the settlement, Joseph F. (“Jay”) Bamberger has resigned after allegations surfaced that he was serving as a director of the fund, receiving $5,000 a month (three of the plaintiff’s lawyers were also paid directors). The state’s Judicial Conduct Commission said Bamberger’s actions “shock the conscience” and he faced possible removal had he not resigned. Particular attention is being focused on Bamberger’s close ties to Mark Modlin, a trial consultant in the fen-phen case who has had co-investments with the judge. The alleged closeness between Bamberger and Modlin had led to protests from litigants in a number of earlier cases, including a high-profile priest-abuse case against the Catholic Diocese of Covington.

The commission’s reprimand (PDF) revealed a startling fact. “The attorney fees approved were at least $86 million and perhaps as much as $104 million” — well exceeding the $74 million that was split among the 431 claimants in settlement. A lawsuit continues on behalf of some allegedly victimized clients against four plaintiff’s lawyers involved in the settlement, including big-league Cincinnati operator Stanley Chesley. (Beth Musgrave, “Fen-phen lawsuit judge resigns”, Lexington Herald-Leader, Feb. 28; Jim Hannah, “Judge quits amid allegations”, Cincinnati Enquirer, Feb. 28; “Investigation of Bamberger warranted” (editorial), Cincinnati Enquirer, Mar. 1; “A blistering rebuke” (editorial), Cincinnati Post, Mar. 1; Peter Bronson, “Hold this judge in contempt”, Cincinnati Enquirer, Mar. 2)(cross-posted from Point of Law).

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Update: Mississippi judicial corruption retrial

The retrial of the judicial bribery case against prominent attorney Paul Minor and two former state judges has now been set for Aug. 14, following delays requested by Minor’s attorneys (Anita Lee, “Judicial trial set Aug. 14”, Biloxi Sun-Herald, Feb. 11). And the federal tax evasion trial of Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Oliver Diaz Jr. is now scheduled for Apr. 3 (“Diaz tax trial delayed”, Feb. 21). For more, see Dec. 10 and our many previous links.

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Pellicano scandal, cont’d

More prominent L.A. lawyers continue to be named as “persons of interest” in the investigation of wiretapping and privacy invasion, and at least half a dozen of them have retained criminal counsel on their own behalf. (WSJ law blog, Feb. 27; Greg Krikorian and Andrew Blankstein, “Feds Working New Pellicano Indictments”, Los Angeles Times, Mar. 1). And here come the civil suits, with an emphasis naturally on targeting deep-pocketed bystanders: attorneys Brian Kabateck and Matthew Geragos are seeking class-action status on behalf of Pellicano wiretap victims in a suit against AT&T, formerly SBC (Justin Scheck and Kellie Schmitt, “Lawyers Rev Up for Hollywood Wiretapping Case”, The Recorder/Law.com, Feb. 28). ” More coverage: Feb. 18, Feb. 16, etc.

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