July 4, 2014

Years of legal work by dozens of lawyer and their staffs, reams of documents, depositions,

motions, hearings, phone calls, and meetings with thousands of clients, and hundreds of thousands of case expenses, all at risk if the government declined to settle and the trials were lost. Instead they were successful and got paid. It is not all profit, those employees have to get paid every pay day, insurance, copiers, IT...., you know, jobs. Should they not recover anything? Do you not want to have law firms available when this happens and the government, or a big company like BP come after YOU!

Big Plaintiffs firms are actually struggling to stay afloat now that Big Business has convinced everyone that we are the bad guys. Tort reform was passed everywhere limiting your rights and our ability to protect YOU! BP had 400 of the top of their class lawyers going against us in the BP Texas City explosion in March of 2005, we had 10. They dumped 7 million documents on us and we read 7 days a week, 16 hours a day and hired every available law clerk/students in the Houston area, but we did it. We found where they budgeted for their workers lives because they chose not to fix the most dangerous problems with their old, rust bucket plant. We found the document where they fraudulently filed a document with the TCEQ (Texas Commission on Environmental Quality) stating they had installed a flare that would have prevented the accident. We discovered that they hired the TCEQ employee reviewing that fraudulent permit, then had him resubmit in violation of Federal law. They pled guilty to a felony and were on probation when they blew up the Deepwater Horizon. After the case was won we still testified in from of Congress and told them it would happen again, that BP still hadn't learned their lesson. We turned over the key documents to Eric Holder and requested probation be revoked after Deepwater, they were let off probation early instead.

Yea, they shouldn't get paid for all of the hard work, expense, risk. You don't need us. You probably think Stella Liebeck didn't deserve the $900,000 for almost dying and having her labia and clitoris so horribly burned by McDonald's extra hot coffee that allowed them to get twice as much coffee from the same amount of beans and keep it fresher longer. Especially since the Judge lowered the 2 million the jury came up with (one day of Mickey D's coffee sales world-wide) because he thought it was excessive. I mean really, even though they knew they were causing some 2nd and 3rd degree burns every once in awhile, it was making them lots of money. Damn trial lawyers, now Mickey D's has to sell coffee at the industry standard temperature! But i am sure you knew that and are ok with that! Socrates was right, kill all of the lawyers, you can do without us. Tell yourself that next time a cop roughs you up and arrests you for trying to stand up for your rights!

June 29, 2014

K&R!!!! Whitehouse Rocks!

The regulars at DU know me to constantly link the issues of the day that are posted here to getting the money out of our political system. By far that has been my primary focus. I am quick to respond to one other type of post, and that is climate change. In fact my urgency is fueled by my worry over climate change and the environment.

I am very encouraged on both fronts right now as there seems to be a fast growing awareness and willingness to push these issues by both politicians and the rest of us. I know that both of these movements still have a long way to go, but they are picking up speed!

If we could make a stand before this election in November to DEMAND that the money be taken out. Demand the Constitutional Amendment to get rid of Citizens United, money = speech, and require Publicly Funded Elections for Federal, State, and Local elections, we can make the serious moves necessary to save ourselves.

As Sheldon Whitehouse says, "The oceans don't lie." They are in very poor condition already and rapidly getting worse. If the phytoplankton in the oceans start to die we all suffocate. 2/3 of our oxygen comes from these organisms. We are messing with things we haven't begun to understand and will already pay a heavy price for our hubris.

Sheldon is also right when he talks about how the rest of the world views our country, even if they don't always like our politics. If we make the serious commitment to the environment, the rest of the countries (the ones not already way ahead of us on renewable energy) will follow our lead!

Whitehouse for the Whitehouse!!!

June 28, 2014

The Republicans may be in the minority, but as many have stated above they fight dirty.

We could effect the change now, but for the fact that the Republican backers control the MSM and encourage the voter apathy that keeps the majority of the people from making the effort to go to the polls.

We need to find a way to engage them as Obama's run in 08 did. If we could plan on protests and marches starting in September with the sole focus of getting the money out of our politics we could give them a single cause they can understand and get behind. OWS had so many different issues aside from Wall Street it was just too much for most people.

Let's take a page from the Republicans play book and turn the reason for the apathy into the reason to vote, ending the corruption! Republicans are famous for taking a strength, such as John Kerry's Vietnam service, and turning it against him. Well, the corruption has kept the Repugs in power and contributed the lions share of the apathy, let's make that the issue in this election. The more money they raise the more we can show that they are trying to buy votes.

Let's force the candidates to support the Constitutional Amendment process to overturn Citizens United, money is not speech, and add to that Publicly Funded Elections across the board, Federal, State, and Local! Let's make them support COMPLETE Campaign Finance Reform!

OWS did a lot of good, especially in changing the conversation to the rising inequality. Let us refine what they did by keeping this singular focus. If we can achieve these goals, Representative Democracy will return and we can start addressing the myriad other issues facing us such as climate change, education, gun control, infrastructure.... We must act now!

June 9, 2014

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal says suing oil companies for damages caused by Fracking is "frivolous!"

May 7, 2014

It's past time for 60 Minutes to be up!

There are no more Mike Wallace tough interviews, or Ed Bradley's cool, but honest recitation of FACTS. They did not decide to go back to journalism school after the Lara Logan and Benghazi debacle which we are still learning was actually worse than 1st thought (Lindsey Graham as a source)! No, they did it again last Sunday with their piece about poor BP the victim. It was about as fair and balanced as Fox News. I wonder if they did it for new money, or just because since the Gulf oil spill BP has been one of the largest advertisers in the country, and by far the largest advertiser on the Gulf Coast (local media wouldn't dare print a victim's story negative to BP for fear of losing the ad money).
They gave account after account of fraudulent, or seemingly fraudulent claims. The focus was on BP paying claims that did not have to prove causation. It would have been real simple to attach a copy of the transcript from the "Fairness Hearing" where both sides asked the Court to approve the settlement. Judge Barbier specifically asked BP's attorneys on the record about the scenario where they would be paying claims where the losses could not be traced to the oil spill. BP said they were fine with it because to try to directly prove and/or disprove causation would cost more money. In reality, BP knew that under this deal they do not have to pay tens of thousands of truly deserving victims because they did not recover in 2011. Their accounting graph would not have the proper V shape. They have been able to deny businesses and individuals that everyone agrees suffered do to the spill for numerous technical and documentary issues. This is just another way for them to delay, deny, and defend until the victims give up.
The old 60 minutes would have asked Ken Feinberg some tough questions instead of just letting him tell of the most outrageous claims he remembers. I can see Mike Wallace asking Feinberg:

Mike: "Ken, we just showed a clip of you at one of hundreds of Town Hall meetings you held up and down the Gulf Coast in 2010, and 2011, where you told the assembled residents that you were 'Independent' and that they should not get an attorney because you were independent and fair, and that a lawyer would just cost you money." "First, is that true? Feinberg: "Yes...bullshit,bullshit, bullshit." Mike: "We have here an Order signed by the Judge in this case on February 2nd, 2011, where Judge Barbier stated, 'The clear record in this case demonstrates that any claim of the GCCF's (Gulf Coast Claim Facility which was supposedly formed to resolve claims) neutrality and independence is misleading to the putative class members and is a direct threat to this ongoing litigation, as claimants must sign a full release against all potential Defendants before obtaining final payments.' He goes on to state: '...in this case Mr. Feinberg has been quoted on a number of occasions as publicly advising potential claimants that they do not need to hire a lawyer and will be much better off accepting what he offers rather than going to court. A full disclosure of the relationship between Mr. Feinberg, the GCCF, and BP will at least make it transparent that it's BP's interests as the OPA (Oil Pollution Act) responsible party that are being promoted.' Mike: " Isn't it true Ken that you were not "independent" as you claimed, but as the Judge found, you were actually acting as BP's representative?"

They did not cover the fact that BP, out of the goodness of their little black heart, offered to pay the Plaintiff's Steering Committee (PSC) up to $600,000,000.00 in attorneys fees and expenses to the PSC members if they got the judge who appointed them to reset a trial that was about to start against BP, Halliburton, and Trans Ocean for another year, announce to the court that they have an agreement in principle to settle the case, freeze all settlements for 4 months, get rid of Ken Feinberg and his firm, and complete the Class Action Settlement. Now the PSC would agree to eat dog turds and screw all of the victims in the Class Settlement as long as it went all of the way through so they could get the $600,000,000.00 bribe, uh, I mean "Common Benefit Fund!"
60 Minutes did a great piece on the BP Texas City explosion case from 2005. They featured our client, Eva Rowe, who lost both her mom and dad in the blast. They had producers in our office for weeks pouring over documents and interviewing everyone so that they could get the facts straight. Ed Bradley had come out of retirement (he had cancer he did not tell anyone about) because of what happened to Ms. Rowe and how dirty BP was. He did a great job even though it was hard to be fair to BP since they would not cooperate with the story.
How far they have fallen now. Now it is all about being pro-corporation and anti-labor. In the meantime you will not see Anderson Cooper or Rachel Maddow doing follow up reporting on the coast. The MSM is not countering the propaganda BP has been desperately shoveling saying that they have paid all legitimate claims and all that is left are the fraudulent ones. We have over 6,000 clients who have not received an offer after 4 years. They opted out of the class settlement so they would not waive their right to trial against BP as all victims in the class action had to. We filed their lawsuits and there they sit collecting dust, not allowed by the judge to go forward until all claims in the class action have been resolved. What a joke! Meanwhile, the victims have to see BP's propaganda every time they turn on the TV, including this 60 Minutes broadcast.