Dr. Zev Maycon has been sued four times in three years; he’s been dismissed before trial each time, but has missed weeks of work as a result, to the detriment of his patients. The only time he’s been able to recover his expenses for these meritless lawsuits is the one time an attorney was impolitic enough to acknowledge the lack of evidence and explicitly demand settlement money as a precondition for dropping the suit. Though none of the press mentions it, a meritless suit in Ohio state court isn’t considered “frivolous” unless there’s evidence that it’s brought in bad faith. The sanctioned attorney, Catherine Little, is appealing, the costs of which may end up exceeding the $6,000 sanctions if the appeal isn’t also considered frivolous. (Tracy Wheeler, Akron Beacon-Journal, Mar. 14; Medpundit, Mar. 13; OSMA press release).
Posts Tagged ‘Ohio’
Belated Geoffrey Fieger Report: Wills v. Dillard’s
Jameel Talley had been fired from the local police department, but the mayor of North Randall (pop. 893 and dropping) “sent what he called a ‘second chance’ letter to Maple Heights, saying Talley should not have been fired. The mayor said he ‘erred in judgment’ and ‘recommends 100 percent (that) Talley continue his career in law enforcement.'” So Maple Heights hired him for their police department, where Talley had a spotless record, and the local Dillard’s hired him for off-duty work as a security guard.
Unfortunately, Talley had been fired from North Randall for shooting at a shoplifting suspect.
And, unfortunately again, 41-year-old Guy Wills, under the influence of drugs, decided to shoplift a leather jacket at Dillard’s, and then resist arrest from the much larger Talley. So Talley smashed him upside down into the concrete floor. Unfortunately again, Wills checked himself out of the hospital, got sick at the police station, refused treatment or a trip to the emergency room–and then fell into a coma, and when he woke up, he was dead. Shortly after the incident, Dillard’s shut down the store. Talley was convicted of voluntary manslaughter for excessive force, and sentenced to three years. And Dillard’s, as the deep pocket, was sued. (NewsNet5: Jan. 18 (featuring the great line “Dillard’s attorney, who’s [sic] name is unknown at this time”), June 23, 2003; Nov. 14, 2002; “Dillard’s to close Raleigh Springs store”, Memphis Business Journal, Jan. 27, 2003).
The attorney was none other than Geoffrey Fieger (Oct. 11 and Aug. 31 and lots of links therein), but the trial wasn’t going so well, so he adopted what seems to be a standard tactic: deliberately try to alienate the judge, and then loudly complain about prejudice.
[Judge Nancy Margaret] Russo leveled a litany of legal wrongs against Fieger, including: insulting and berating lawyers and calling them liars; making faces after she ruled against him; repeatedly interrupting testimony; entering objections loudly; and threatening an insurance adjuster with the loss of his job.
“He has been nothing but bullying, loud, obnoxious and unprofessional,” Russo said. “I have tried for three weeks to rein him in. I have done my best.”
The final straw came Thursday after attorney Larry Zukerman accused Fieger of accosting him and threatening to have his client — former Dillard’s store manager Frank Monaco — arrested for obstruction of justice.
Russo threatened Fieger with contempt, and Fieger responded by pulling himself off the case and asking for a mistrial. For some reason, Russo rewarded the antics with exactly what Fieger wanted, and now Fieger gets to start all over with another judge, and a second bite at correcting whatever problems he saw with the first trial. (James F. McCarty, “Lawyer quits case on judge’s threat”, Cleveland Plain-Dealer, Jan. 29; James F. McCarty, “Mistrial in wrongful-death case of shoplifter”, Cleveland Plain-Dealer, Feb. 1). And shame on our Cleveland readers for not letting us know about this one sooner.
An Ohio receiver
“Judges appoint Mark Dottore to stabilize troubled companies. Critics say he’s cleaning them out.” (Kevin Hoffman, “King Nothing”, Cleveland Scene, Feb. 9). For a glimpse at the world of court-appointed trusteeships in New York, see Nov. 11, 2003.
“I did considerable research before I sued a seven-year-old.”
That’s a quote from attorney Judson Hawkins, who’s representing Mary Ellen Michaels in her lawsuit against a seven-year-old boy whose bike she collided with while rollerblading, the boy’s grandmother and parents (“who were a thousand miles away at the time”). The Ohio courts have dismissed her complaint, but Michaels vows to appeal to the state supreme court if necessary. (“Suing a 7-Year-Old”, Cleveland Scene, Feb. 9).
Ohio AG: Attorneys that challenged election results should be sanctioned
“Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro has asked the Ohio Supreme Court to sanction four lawyers who handled a legal challenge, later withdrawn, to last year’s presidential election in Ohio.” The challenge focused on the long lines faced by voters, a claimed shortage of voting machines in African-American neighborhoods, and potential fraud. The AG’s motion calls the election challenge “meritless” and claims it was done for “partisan political purposes.” The motion continues, “A contest proceeding is not a toy for idle hands. It is not to be used to make a political point, or to be used as a discovery tool, or used to inconvenience or harass public officials, or to be used as a publicity gimmick. [It] is a wholly inappropriate forum to address the localized problems of long lines, shortages of machines, failing to receive notice of the proper voting precinct or casting of provisional ballots.” (Reginald Fields, “Attorney general’s call to punish lawyer is reply to election challenge,” Cleveland Plain-Dealer, Jan. 19; Editorial, “Blaming the messengers,” N.Y. Times, Feb. 3). See also earlier posts (Dec. 20; Dec. 15.)
Cheated workers
Ohio workers who got their jobs through a welfare program are suing the state for improper compensation. Example: As part of his welfare benefits, Bruce Smith stripped floors in Youngstown when his knee snapped as he bent to pick up a bucket of water. His attorneys argue he should have received worker’s compensation based on his pre-welfare salary, not on his food stamp allowance, according to a state supreme court decision. The state says the ruling “applied to death benefits, not regular workers comp claims.”
The welfare program is a tiny part of overall claims. The workers compensation bureau has paid about $6 million for 3,200 successful welfare worker claims to date, compared to about $2 billion last year alone in regular claims, Hicks said.
The Equal Justice Foundation says the number of potential claims is much higher. In court filings accompanying the lawsuit, foundation attorneys say the figure is over 5,000, citing workers’ compensation bureau e-mails.
Smith, 59, went on welfare after he was laid off from his job making bumpers for a General Motors parts supplier. He was injured in April 2003 on a job he received in Mahoning County as a condition of getting $139 in food stamps weekly.
Associated Press, “Lawsuit Alleges Workers Hurt On Welfare Jobs Cheated,” Jan 4.
Should have taken the Happy Meal
John Gregg of Shaker Heights, Ohio wasn’t satisfied with the $30,000 that an arbitrator awarded him for supposedly slipping on soap and water in the men’s room of a McDonald’s restaurant. He insisted on a jury trial instead, but as the trial date approached the restaurant chain investigated the case further and found that Gregg, “who had a 2002 arson conviction connected to burning a relative’s car for insurance money,” wasn’t telling the strict truth when he said he didn’t know the customer who was serving as his key witness in the claim. In fact, the man had worked with Gregg at a construction firm and the two had both collected payments from Geico two years earlier after claiming that their cars had collided with each other. Calling his actions “fraudulent”, Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Timothy J. McGinty found Gregg in contempt of court, “ordered him jailed for 30 days and fined him $250.” (Jim Nichols, “Pass up $30,000, go directly to jail”, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Dec. 17; “Outcome of McDonald’s suit should be modeled” (editorial), Richmond, Ind., Palladium-Item, Dec. 22).
Inmate to be freed after 25 years
“The Ohio Parole Board has decided a Cleveland-area man has spent the last 25 years behind bars for a crime he may not have committed and voted unanimously for his release.” Gary Reece was convicted of rape in 1980 on the accusation of a neighbor despite his denials and a lack of any evidence that he had ever been in the accuser’s apartment. In the years since then much evidence has accumulated casting doubt on the credibility of his accuser, Kimberly Croft. In fact, “on one television news program, [Croft] claimed that Gary Reece actually killed her during the attack in question, but that ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarves’ brought her back to life,'” according to a brief filed with the parole board by law students working with the Ohio Innocence Project. (Roy Wood, “UC law students convince board: Man is innocent”, Cincinnati Post, Dec. 18; “Imprisoned on a shaky story”, (editorial), Cleveland Plain Dealer, Dec. 5).
Real vote fraud
I wrote about the frivolous legal challenge to the Ohio presidential vote earlier today. But real vote fraud and voting shenanigans seem to be taking place in Washington state.
John Fund writes about a real threat to voting rights in Washington state — efforts to “find” votes for the gubernatorial candidates in what had been a close election, which became closer every time King County looked at its in-box.
UPDATE: And for more fun with voter intent and attempts to obtain executive office through fraud, check out the coverage of San Diego’s controversial mayoral election here.
Upholding democracy, frivolous election challenge thrown out
The Ohio Supreme Court’s Chief Justice threw out a lawsuit backed by Jesse Jackson and funded by a partisan Massachusetts election monitoring group. The lawsuit claimed that Pres. Bush unfairly won Ohio due to some indescribable fraud by his supporters as this excerpt from this article indicates:
The complaint questioned how the actual results could show Bush winning when exit-poll interview findings on election night indicated that Kerry would win 52 percent of Ohio’s presidential vote.
Without listing specific evidence, the complaint alleges that 130,656 votes for Kerry and John Edwards in 36 counties were somehow switched to count for the Bush-Cheney ticket.
The Ohio chief justice ruled that