Pennsylvania Injury Law Report : Pennsylvania Personal Injury Lawyer & Attorney : Stuart Carpey Law Firm : Auto Accidents & Product Liability : Pennsylvania Injury Law Report

How is the public to interpret the Fumo conviction? The jury said he sunk himself when he testified that all he was required to do as a state senator was show up and vote. Using taxpayer money to line his own pockets and heavy handing PECO for a shakedown for his own private charity. A politician for the people? Nope.  A politician for himself.

Compare  the mess at AIG. Edward Liddy, AIG's CEO testified to a Congressional committee, and was questioned about why he thought AIG executives should get $165 million in bonus money funded by the taxpayer bailout. Liddy's rationale for paying the bonuses is because of contractual arrangements with the executives that were in place before the bailout money was paid to AIG.

Liddy is the former CEO of Allstate (from 1995 to 1999, then Chairman of the Board until 2007) where he made over $350 million in salary and stock options, during which time he was behind a targeted plan to deny contractual payments to Allstate insureds.

Liddy's goal at Allstate (which he succeeded in accomplishing) was to radically alter the approach  to the business of claims by not paying legitimate claims and making it too expensive for Allstate insureds to litigate their claims. The case that brought Allstate's model to light has been litigated in New Mexico.

Liddy's wealth includes a retirement package from Allstate worth over $70 million. Remember, he wants the AIG execs to get their taxpayer supplied bonuses.

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I recently read a few articles about lawyers in Wisconsin and Texas targeting car accident victims by scouring local police reports. They then contact the accident victims by mail. In the articles, the lawyers give their reason for doing this as trying to put accident victims on equal footing with insurance companies, who also approach accident victims immediately after an accident. Fair enough. Sort of like public service. But I guarantee the lawyers using this method to attract clients are not offering free legal services. Are the Wisconsin and Texas lawyers justified in their attempts to seek new clients in this way? Is it just another method of marketing their practice, or does it go too far?

The same thing happens in Philadelphia, although it has not been written about. Local lawyers hire “investigators” to sit in a room in City Hall where all the police reports are kept. The “investigators” scour the police reports for serious accidents where the accident victims are not at fault, for instance rear- end collisions, and once that information is obtained by the lawyers, they write to the car accident victims offering representation. A few clients of mine have told me, after they have hired me, that they have received a “strange’ letter from another lawyer, like what I’ve just described. I then explain this method that some lawyers use to try to find clients.

Is this illegal? No. Is it unethical in terms of the standards lawyers must adhere to? Not technically. Lawyers have the right under the 1st Amendment to contact prospective clients in writing, not in person or by telephone, and offer their services. Does it undermine the legal profession and personal injury lawyers in particular? It certainly does.

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By now, most Pennsylvanians have heard or read about the two Luzerne County judges, Mark A. Ciavarella and Michael T. Conahan who pleaded guilty in February to sentencing juveniles to secure detention facilities from which they received $2.6 million in kickbacks. Others associated with these events have also been charged.

The wrongdoings of the judges centered on the following:

• neither the juveniles nor their families were advised by the judges of their right to counsel,
• guilty pleas were accepted without explaining what the minors were charged with,
• and parents’ wages were garnished to pay for the costs of detention;
• the judges summarily and routinely ordered that youths who had committed relatively minor offenses be sent to residential youth detention facilities.

The detention centers, with the two judges’ assistance, received more than $30 million in county contracts. As part of the guilty pleas, the judges have agreed to spend 87 months in federal prison. For the juveniles who have endured this nightmare, is their any other recourse other than the knowledge that the judges who sentenced them without adhering to the juveniles’ constitutional rights are in prison? Yes. To date, three separate lawsuits have been filed on behalf of the juveniles for violation of their constitutional rights. The basis of those lawsuits stems from the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution which holds that no state, state agency or state employee can violate an individual’s rights afforded by the U.S. Constitution. A specific federal statute, 42 U.S.C. Section 1983 is the ignition that allows a lawsuit to be filed. That statute provides that an injured party in these types of cases must demonstrate a violation of a right secured by the Constitution and the laws of the United States and that the alleged deprivation was committed by a person acting under color of state law. So how is someone injured when their rights are violated? The two disgraced Luzerne County judges did not physically injure the minors who they sentenced. Nevertheless, the law allows for monetary compensation. Such cases frequently arise from police abuse/ brutality cases (violation of the 4th Amendment against unreasonable searches and seizures and 8th Amendment protection against cruel and unusual punishment), prisoner abuse by guards (8th Amendment) injury to a prisoner where a guard, warden, member of prison staff has knowledge of impending injury to a prisoner (8th Amendment). The hallmark of America’s civil rights is the protection from the State intruding upon its citizens. Individuals whose rights are violated have avenues that can be pursued.

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