Lawsuit Mediation – The Real Story

     It is time. Your lawyer tells you that you need to go over a few things before mediation. You know, sit up straight, don’t talk too much, be respectful, then…you get it, the first tidbit of trite:
     You will be told that if mediation is successful everyone walks away a little dissatisfied. Reality is that mediation umpires the legal system from justice to disappointment and is a system in which no one running the show is completely accountable.

     Judges have been replaced by glib mediators that court, patronize, threaten, coerce, blame, shame, and finally sell you that 1960 Edsel, driven only to church on Sunday by a 60-year-old spinster.

    The process is more about performance than substance just to give you a false sense of control and power. You will be told that you’ll feel better once your hurt feelings are heard by the other side, and that being heard is most important, not the money.  Hogwash, it is most important to the other party not to pay.  If they could have made the lawsuit go away without a mountain of legal fees, sorry would have been on the table before you walked in the door.

     The probability is high that before you enter that room there is a pre-ordained settlement amount that everyone except you is cognizant, and you are stage-managed into a false sense of decision-making. They will pacify your desire for a day in court by serenading you with those overplayed lyrics that everyone knows that you just want to be heard, it will make you feel better, give you closure When in fact, closure is just a zipper, a button, a piece of Velcro that picks up every piece of lint in the wash.

     Clients will never learn what actually crosses the table in mediation as secrecy is unlike that in an open courtroom. Hushed negotiations snigger behind closed doors, and when your representative says, I’ll be right back, it is not to meet an impartial judge in chambers. Approach the bench has been replaced, Can I see you outside.

     In the second all probability, your confidential position paper has not been seen only by the mediator. They all know what you know. I’ll show you mine if you show me yours has already been played and the first alleluia and soft-shoe you will be told is “Do not to be upset over the very small first offer, you hold all the cards.”
     Then…you will be asked just to meet them part way, and they will come up.
     No, they will not and you have just fallen into the well with no bucket to pull you out.

     They will tire you out. The mediator is perfectly willing to drag out the completely executed script all day long to run up that several thousand-dollar tab, although everyone (except you) knows beforehand the outcome.
     You may be told that all the judges are seriously ill and it would be years before you will even see a court date. You will be told they will appeal and courts are so backed up it will be years before you will even see a court date.

     Be prepared. Use the internet. Do your research.   

     You may be told that juries hate clients and love sophisticated handsome articulate educated “other parties.” Make a note beforehand of all the news stories about how juries rule for the handsome articulate educated “other parties” and hate poor people who have been injured, because the constitution does not include the poor person.

     You may be told a story about a client, against his lawyer’s advice, who went to court and got nothing, over and over and over.

     You may be told your judge does not like your lawsuit and will not adequately advise the jury. You may be told, juries are a crapshoot and if they, or just one juror, does not like you, you get nothing.
     It is a frightening truth that lawyers view jurors as unqualified, and seemingly only lawyers are qualified to “judge,” when in truth, most juries take their roles solemnly, honestly, and conscientiously.
     You may be told the other party will appeal and it will be years before settlement. Seriously, consider if that company or “other party” will not mind paying lawyer fees and expenses for infinite years and do not have a duty to try to settle.
     You may be told to take their offer because you are a poor undeserving redneck that should be grateful for what they are offering , and you are not as intelligent and sophisticated and deserving as …somewhere else.

     For sure, and you just need enough to buy a used a FEMA trailer left over from the floods of Katrina.




©2010

There's Trouble in Red Stick City

Baton Rouge Blah Blah Blah


Let truth be your guide.

Coming Soon...

Affirmative action by any other name is just profiling.

     I, for many, demand that our trusted protectors use affirmative action to protect us from terrorism.

Affirmative action by any other name is just profiling.

• Recognizing groups based on distinctive features or characteristics of the individuals is profiling.
• No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States is profiling.
• Policies to give preferentiality for specific or distinctive features or characteristics to increase opportunities is profiling.

    Did you know that the Federal Courts have ruled that universities may use factors, such as race or gender in college admissions to give as much as 20 point leads over others, but law enforcement is denigrated for using criminal profiles to protect lives? Should you question if these students are also graded by affirmative action, i.e. profiling?
     Could your surgeon have been graduated with extra points because of profiling? How qualified can this be? Can anyone trust the degree of any individual when the degree is dispensed, rather than earned by any method other than hard work and high standards?
     How sad it is, that now, when you say, “Wow, a Harvard graduate!” it may simply mean that the so-esteemed degree just means 20 extra points over that other student who earned real “C’s” working hard to pay tuition.
     Doesn’t that make the A’s and B’s more like a D’s and F’s?

     Life is a profile. When you pick your mate, you are profiling. You like short, or tall, black or blonde, blue eyes, hazel eyes, brown eyes? Most people are drawn to a type, a profile, distinctive features or characteristics.

     The next time you pull that lever in the voting both, or make an appointment with your broker, your doctor, or your lawyer, think about it.
     Think about it!

 ©2009 By Permission

$$$$$ LAISSEZ LES TAX ROULET $$$$$

TAXED.TAXED.TAXED.TAXED
VOTE WISELY

WHO RAISES YOUR TAXES?
What do you get out of a dollar?

26 cents?

Sales TAX . Income TAX . Property TAX . Food TAX
Medicine TAX . Fuel TAX . Utilities TAX
TAX on TAX

Healthcare Reform/Deform by any other name is
T A X

... and for liberty for which it stands

It has aroused grown men to tears. It has inspired young men to fight. Many have died to protect it from defamation and dishonor. Nations salute it. Government and its citizens pledge their allegiance to it. It is the greatest symbol of liberty and justice in the world today.
Its colors represent red for hardiness and courage; white for purity and innocence; and blue for vigilance, perseverance, and justice.
Songs have been written for it. It is called by many names, Old Glory, Stars and Stripes, Flag of the Free, Banner of Liberty, Star Spangled Banner, The Flag of the United States of America, and June 14, is its day,
Flag Day.
It was 232 years ago, on June 14, 1777, that the Continental Congress resolved:
...that the Flag of the United States be 13 stripes alternate red and white, and
the Union be 13 stars, white in a blue field representing a new constellation.

The red and white stripes represent our original colonies and the stars, our 50 states.

The Flag of the Free never flies higher than in a time of distress when our citizens become one and then it blazes in its splendor.
When the heroes that raised Old Glory on that hill in Iwo Jima in ’45, Ira Hayes, Franklin Sousley, John Bradley, Harlon Block, Michael Strank, and Rene Gagnon, it was so, as they said,
"every Marine on this cruddy island can see it."
And as our history has borne many heroes, after a brutal terrorist attack on American soil, September 11, 2001, New York City Firefighters, Billy Eisengrein, George Johnson, and Dan McWilliams raised The Flag of the Free on Ground Zero and our nation resounded in a freedom call for which our troops willingly fought.

Wrought in history is The Flag of the United States of America. It was during the war of 1812 that the glory of the Star Spangled Banner flying steadfastly amid exploding bombs in Baltimore Harbor inspired Francis Scott Key to write when, the smoke cleared, what he saw, that “...our flag was still there," and the story of what he witnessed by the dawn's early light, became song, words that resonate evermore, that our flag waves O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave, The Star Spangled Banner, our National Anthem.
This Banner of Liberty that evolved from 66 different flags began with another American hero, General George Washington, who asked Betsy Ross to make him a banner that would represent the liberty on which our United States was founded.
Then, one hundred years after The Flag of the United States of America was adopted by the Continental Congress, the anniversary of that declaration was first observed and Old Glory was honored, on June 14th.
The evolving official United States National Flag, has become a muse for equality and independence, and is a symbol of our ideals. Americans all over the world display The Flag of The Free–not just on Flag Day but during times of conflict, Independence Day, Memorial Day, and Veterans Day.
It is with reverence that we drape Old Glory on the caskets of those that have served and died, resting the starry blue canton over our champion’s heads.
No other flag flies higher than The Flag of the United States of America with exception for the Church Pendant as Chaplains conduct services at sea and the United Nations Flag. The deference to our Stars and Stripes carries meaning beyond national respect as the United States Flag flown upside down represents a distress signal, and is flown at half-mast as a symbol of mourning.
Scores of American children learn early to stand with hands over their hearts, watching, as The Flag of the Free unfurls dramatically aloft and free, symbolizing the freedom for which it represents.
I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America…, are words written by Francis Bellamy that have survived 117 years to Pledge Allegiance to our National Symbol Of Liberty.

In 1942 Congress made this Pledge of Allegiance part of the uniform code for the use of The Flag of the United States of America, and in 1954 President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed into law the two words that added "under God" to the pledge.

Since that time, schoolchildren all over The United States of America recite each day:

"I pledge allegiance to the
Flag Of The United States Of America
and to the Republic for which it stands,
one Nation under God,
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

©1981 By Permission

LINGUISTIC MALPRACTICE

To Say He Or She "Went Missing" Is Grammatically Irresponsible.

Went is the past tense of the verb go.
No one can "Go" missing.
To depart: he went, she went or they went.
To lose something or someone It is missing, She/He is missing.
Either they are missing or they are not.
To go implies an object. She goes to the store.
To the store is a prepositional phrase that is the direct object of 'goes.'
Went is the past tense of Go, therefore it needs an object.
Missing is an adjective --it modifies a noun.
Missing is not a place.
Missing is a condition.
One cannot "Go to a condition."
One cannot "Went to a condition.”
She/He went (somewhere) requires a noun not an adjective.
Go and went require a place, an object.
I go to..., She/He goes to..., They go to...
She/He is missing , was missing (from where).
She (He) was missed (at what time).
Nothing can went missing."
No one can went missing.
Nothing can go missing.
No one can go missing.
She/He is missing.
She/He was missing.
She/He was missed at a time.
They are missing.
They were missed.
One will be missing from my television if She/He keeps murdering the English language.
©2008 By Permission

Louisiana Water

©1981 By Permission

Are you a BONA FIDE BATON ROUGEAN?

OH WHAT A NIGHT

• Were you at Ellis’ on Government Street one Thursday night the summer of ‘62 listening to Johnny Mathis languishing ‘...? I get misty just holding your hand?
• Do you get an uncontrollable desire for Pizza when someone says the words Fleur-de-lis?
• Was your last stop on your weekend nights at the Three Coins?
• Did Van Broussard get your “Mojo” Working at Cal's Club on Saturday winter of ‘64?
• Could you describe the back seat of a yellow 58 Impala while listening to the aching melody of “The 12th of Never”? (or maybe it was a red 57 Chevy)
• Can you match the singer with the place: Mother in Law, Ernie Caddo, Bobby Lovelace The Golden Slipper? The Glass Hat?
• Was it a steamy June Friday night in 65 at the Golden Slipper that you heard the Boogie Kings belt out the Mommy Look the Man is Crying?
• Do you think about the Pastime when you eat a roast beef poboy?
• Do the words “Scotch and Soda bring back long lost nights in at Rips Huddle?
• Did you drive through Alessi’s Drive Inn on a Wednesday night in ’61?
• Does the melody O What a night… put a secret smile on your face?
• Where you dancing EVERY Sunday afternoon at Anchor Inn and then if you were still on a roll head on to Pops or- listen to ‘Lynn and Lynn’ pack them in at Ben ‘n Nita’s with a finish at the Moonlight Inn?

IN A QUANTUM LEAP COULD YOU FIND:

1. The Circle
2. Chippewa Expressway
3. Sports
4. The Star Mist
5. The Ranchero
6. Rock’s Drive
7. Hoppers
8. Alessi’s Drive Inn
9. Ellis’
10. Cal’s Club
11. The Golden Slipper
12. The Glass Hat
13. Rip’s Huddle
    
    You are BONA FIDE BATON ROUGEAN

©2003 By Permission