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Opinion “Legal Madness” Part II: Hillbilly Heaven in the land of Jackpot Justice |
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Look out for the Double dip ahead keep safe tell the truth and love the comandments |
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A. Back to Bad Checks The Nevada Law passed in 1983 treats any IOU in excess of $250.00 without the money to redeem it as a felony defining casino markers as legally binding like checks. [56] One would think that with the District Attorney acting on behalf of the casinos in a collection capacity that all would be well in paradise; but some casino executives complain the criminal justice system is unreliable in prosecuting deadbeat gamblers because it is plagued by delays, favors lengthy restitution plans over trials or jail time, and is too overworked to stay on top of gamblers’ repayment agreements. [57] Meanwhile the district attorney continues to processes about 100 marker cases each week and thousands a year involving big Strip resorts and smaller, neighborhood casinos. That volume has increased by 5 to 10 percent in the recession, peaking in 2009.[58] In at least one case a deadbeat gambler owing $1M pled guilty but has yet to make any payments eight {8} months later. [59] I guess that old country saying that you can’t squeeze blood from a turnip or in Hillbilly speak tarnip is true! By the time we read of great white whales posting bail the latest signal of the desperation permeating all segments of Las Vegas society we had transferred our corporations to other more stable states. Anyone holding a corporate charter or LLC in Nevada should consider the consequences of retaining a legal or physical presence in Nevada. If you sell a product or provide a service consider establishing a sinking fund to pay extortion claims prior to the filing of a lawsuit against you and your legal entities. Is it worth the fruit of your lifetime of labor to lose it all in one minute? No! It happened to major players with good legal teams and it can and will happen to you. |
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XIII Points and Authorities: The rule of law The lawyer must thrive! Please remove your Cash! Drugs, jewelry and sex may also be accepted for payment depending on the firm representing you and the value of your claim. Please read all disclaimers at the bottom of the form. They may be written in Chinese but that’s your problem if you didn’t receive a proper education. |
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Rule A. Milk Your Client for all he or she is worth by Converting their raw emotion into your personal cash cow! In the Movie Intolerable Cruelty George Clooney plays a divorce attorney with dream like premonitions of the senior partner of his law firm in a Scrooge like ghostly encounter where the elderly lawyer adds up all of the billable hours of Mr. Clooney as Max Massey in a moment of ecstasy even though the dream like figure appears stricken and near death.[33] In Michael Clayton, George Clooney plays an attorney and “fixer” who detects and exposes fraud and conspiracy from within the ranks of counsel associated with his law firm and others representing the same defendants. His associate, friend and fellow attorney Tom Wilkinson as Arthur Eden’s is murdered for discovering the truth. [34] Over two years ago we penned “The Badlands of Nevada” an early tell and economic read of the parabolic rise and ensuing collapse of Las Vegas. More recently we delved into the housing market in Life after Money Part II: Economics and Real Estate. Our own former lawyers slashed their fees from $375.00 an hour to $185.00. Wage deflation may be here to stay! Without legal counsel we invested the miserly total of $648.87 including parking, an occasional Starbucks and one shoe shine v. a plaintiff from Moronistan who outspent us by at least a margin of 10 to 1. Priceless! She experienced almost fifteen months of acute stress and we were within an eyelash of watching her attorney Otis Skunksire melt down in open court and lose everything when he stammered to get his or her story straight. This plaintiff was so angry she published under the notorious Rip Off Report; A site so vile that it is shunned by all but anarchists, social deviants, chronic malcontents and insomniacs. Her six {6} separate reports were meant to humiliate us but backfired when she self promoted by lacing her name throughout each version for anyone calling up the report in her dreamy hamlet of Panama City, Florida including all peers, patients, prospective patients, administrators of both local hospitals, a mermaid and one baby tar ball with eyes to read her rants and though disseminated from her perspective may have damaged her reputation. But we must give Otis his due. We were required to visit his office for a mandatory settlement conference. It was a Friday morning and he and his partner or associate F. Peter James indicated that they considered us like Big Tobacco and intended to make an industry of suing us for our attempts to collect on our unpaid client accounts. We could hardly contain ourselves as almost all of our doctors were satisfied with the service we provided and paid their bills. Some were making from $400,000.000 to $1M a year or more peer to peer on contract renewals or referrals to new practices due to consultation and referral guidance. Otis offered to dismiss both claims if we would pay him $50,000.00 to settle on behalf of one client and $10,000.00 for the other client. We offered them a paper judgment previously awarded to us in the amount of $67,000.00 but they just laughed and said: “No way!” We politely asked if the meeting was over. They said yes and we departed. We could never settle with Otis due to a third case of a poor doctor in Hawaii who paid us $1,000.00 to clear his account. His mistake was that he allegedly sent the payment to his attorney who couldn’t recall receiving the monies when asked by us. When informed that we hadn’t been paid the doctor sent another payment of $1,000.00 directly to us. We felt sorry that he had to pay twice but it was the tell we were awaiting to guide us from this moment forth as we had no grievance with either litigant physician and would have gladly entered into serious negotiations to circumvent and dismiss both complaints. Our premonition of the “lost thousand dollar payment” was that no matter what the offer we would reject it as opposing counsel was not to be trusted to the detriment of his own clients, the other more minor drawback that his negotiations skills left no room for compromise. We imagine Otis leaning back in his office chair his feet on top of his rented desk with his monthly furniture rental invoice crumbled in the ash tray while cranking a cigarette and blowing smoke rings in the vicinity of his phantom employees while chatting with his clients on the phone selling them how much cash he will extract from us to settle their claim just prior to hitting them up for additional retainers. We recently learned that Otis may be working from home sitting on his couch and faxing paperwork requesting runners to file his case work with the court since his electronic filing account was closed. |
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Rule B. Paper Judgments and Billing Schemes can fetch millions in ill gotten gains. Convince your client that the worthless piece of paper they expect to be awarded is really quite valuable at least until they have paid their balance due from your phony hourly billing scheme. You know the one where you invoice in six minute increments for telling dirty jokes or worse playing hide the banana with the receptionist in the conference room with porn streaming in the background or diddling her in the archives section of your pristine library that is rarely used except as a backdrop in your television commercials. Otis brags online about two in excess of $500,000 awards but has collected nothing for either of his judgments and will probably never do so. Why? Because a default or any civil judgment is self enforcing meaning the owner of the judgment must pay for each and every step in an extended collection process. As a practical matter civil judgments are simply a starting point from which settlement discussions may commence unless hate prevails, litigation is escalated, and or asset seizures are attempted which may prove cost prohibited depending on the jurisdiction. But don’t take our word for it in a non affiliated case Bennett Lewis v. Larry Buchanan Case No. 07A536575 filed on February 22, 2007 in Clark County, Nevada Luke Ciciliano represented the defendant Larry Buchanan who was sued for $10,945.38 and instead of negotiating a settlement with the plaintiff Luke Ciciliano reverted to his time honored tradition of filing an expensive counterclaim that accomplished nothing as Mr. Buchanan failed to allegedly pay his legal fees shortly thereafter prompting Luke Ciciliano to withdraw from the case. He then sought a judgment against his own client for legal fees due. So in the end his former client Larry Buchanan was worse off than when he met G. Luke Ciciliano as now he owes two judgments instead of one! But what does this say for the shortsighted strategy of his former attorney who was willing to milk this and other clients a few of whom apparently retain limited financial and mental capacity? Is it possible to be a successful attorney when you ruin your clients in the process and collect nothing for your effort?
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Rule C. Invisible people can and will wreak your life! If you really want to win then skip the formalities like process serving and provide an alternative like sewer service instead. Lawyers may seek to name non parties to ongoing litigation without informing the named party of their intentions, for what purpose? So they can take a default judgment against the party if they fail to answer the complaint. A complaint they may or may not have known existed. As Mark Twain stated “Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't.” [5] Right now in Clark County Nevada this scandal has created a nightmare scenario in the Regional Justice Center. A recent criminal referral involves process servers who signed affidavits or formal sworn testimony of facts that they had process served named defendants when if fact they didn’t allowing them to commit fraud against the court by seeking default judgments on behalf of themselves or their clients. [7] “On Scene Mediations which authorities believe has operated without a license since 2003 is owned by Maurice Carroll, a former Police Officer who has denied that he filed false affidavits in Las Vegas Justice Court. The criminal complaint alleges that he {Carroll} lied in the affidavits when swearing that he had served defendants with copies of court papers in lawsuits filed by the debt collection agency, Richland Holdings. The affidavits allowed Richland Holdings to obtain default judgments against the defendants after they failed to respond to the lawsuits.” [36] Court officials believe that the fallout may be much greater and seek a special hearing master to determine if defendants rights have been violated in any of the twenty five thousand and one {25,001} or so civil default cases served by Carroll on behalf of plaintiffs. [37]
Alison Krauss + Union Station-Live-2002.2.2 |
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Opinion |
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Check your speakers! |