attorneybutler.net

BISH THROWS MITRE IN THE RING FOR MICHIGAN AG

SENATE MAJORITY LEADER, REPUBLICAN MIKE "THE STOPPER" BISHOP HAS WORKED TO DENY CIVIL JUSTICE TO MICHIGAN'S INNOCENT INJURY VICTIMS, HOW WILL MICHIGAN' INNOCENT CRIME VICTIMS FARE WITH HIM AS ATTORNEY GENERAL?

Michigan Senate Majority leader, Republican Mike Bishop wants to be Michigan's next Attorney General.  Presumably he wants to stop crime, punish the guilty and obtain justice for innocent victims of crime.  Mike, "the Crimestopper" Bishop.  Sounds nice. 

I also assume that Senator Bishop's passion to serve the people of the state of Michigan as their chief legal officer is based in part on the fact that he is term limited in his current office and can't run again in 2010.  Mr. Bishop did try to repeal those term limits during his current term in office, without success.

Mr. Bishop has experience as a "Stopper", in fact using that term to describe his role in the Senate when he used his power to prevent a House passed bill to repeal Michigan's Drug Immunity Law from even coming to a vote on the Senate floor.  Michigan is the only state in the Union with such a law, and the most recent House bill to repeal the law came after the US Supreme Court struck down the rationale behind the law in the recent case of Wyeth v Levine (not a case arising under the Michigan law).

When the immunity repeal bill subsequently passed the Michigan House, Bishop said he did not intend to allow a vote on it in the Senate.  And he didn't.  As he stated at the time, "There are some things I have to be a stopper for. I don't have any intention of taking this issue up."  Sounds rather imperious to me.  One man's power can stop remedial legislation in its tracks.

The Bishop thinks that the Michigan-only drug immunity law keeps drug company jobs in Michigan.  Yet, a recent  study found the number of Michigan residents employed by private bio science companies declined by 10.5 percent from 2002-2006, largely because pharmaceutical companies pulled out.

I am sure Bishop's response would be that he saved many more jobs from being lost by opposing the drug immunity law repeal.  Brilliant.

The drug immunity law issue is not the first time the Bishop has acted as a civil justice "stopper".  In the area of auto negligence law, insurance companies have fought long and hard to restrict the rights of injured persons to compensation for their injuries.  In the the mid-Nineties Republican majorities in the Michigan Legislature passed tort reform bills twice rejected by Michigan voters as ballot initiatives.  Those laws were interpreted by a Republican majority on the Michigan Supreme Court, a majority substantially hand-picked by Republican Governor John Engler.  The culmination of this multi-pronged attack on the rights of injured citizens to seek compensation from those who had hurt them was the 2004 Supreme Court case of Kreiner v Fischer, which held that, in order to be compensated for injuries caused by a careless driver, a victim's injuries would have to affect the "course and trajectory" of his life.  Thereafter, reviewing courts in Michigan took this to mean that only proof of a permanent, devastating, life altering injury would be considered serious. 

TASTELESS ATTORNEY ADS-3

I had hoped these two nearly identical pieces of digital dreck were hoaxes, but I have checked and there is an attorney Hal Cook in Little Rock and an attorney Bruce Flint in Dallas.  I wonder if these guys use a similar approach in addressing juries during closing argument.

 

A LITTLE MORE POSITIVE DETROIT VIDEO

 

Love the music.  And the closing tag line made me laugh.  "Visit Downtown Detroit.  It is not as bad as you think."

INTERESTING DISCOVERY

The late journalist Sidney J. Harris had a continuing series among his columns called "Things I Learned on my Way to Looking up Other Things".  It was a little tougher to look up things in Sidney's day.  Hedied in 1986, before Google ruled the world.

I thought of Sidney tonight.  I had lost the citation (really I had forgotten the name) of a recent Michigan Court of Appeals case, wherein Judge Richard Bandstra had written an interesting dissent, by which I mean I did not agree with it.  Using Google in a clever way I came upon the name of the case. Price v Kroger, and ultimately found the opinion.  I'll write on that case later this week, while biting my nails keeping tabs on the upcoming Tigers-Twins four gamer.

In my search I came upon a relatively newish Michigan legal blog,Good Law, Bad Law, It's the Law.  written by Bingham Farms attorney, Dan Bernard.  The blog is subtitled,  "Tracking the law from a conservative perspective."  I don't know Dan personally, but he does have some interesting opinions, by which I mean....

Dan does put a lot of thought into his pieces, which is more than can be said for a lot of writers, politicians and so on.  I'll update my site to place his site on my blog roll.  

While visiting Dan's site I started visiting some of the blogs and sites he listed on his blog.  That led me to others and on and on, till I really became too scared to continue.  I learned two things tonight.  First, that there are more Michigan legal and political blogs out there than I had hitherto thought.  And, secondly, I didn't know so many people could always be right.  However, it is hard not to get a lot of great material listening to Michigan Democratic Party Chairman Mark Brewer.  Not much of a challenge though.  I saw the video wherein he introduced the Republican Coloring Book.  Good Lord.  If he said "second tier candidate" one more time, I was going to scream.

By the way, Dan has already written a piece on Judge Bandstra's dissent in Price.  I found it very interesting.

HYPOCRISY IS NOT THE ONLY VICE

There is no lack of examples of hypocrisy among tort reformers, and I have written about some of them on this site, most recently, here.  These folks preach for restrictions on access to civil justice, alleged frivolous lawsuits, greedy trial lawyers, etc., right up to the time that someone looks crooked at them.  Then they run, not walk up the courthouse steps requesting their full measure of compensation, and then some.

Not that trial lawyers themselves are immune from the occasional lapse.

Former California Assemblyman Mike Duvall's position on the right to civil justice is unknown to me, a resident of the fair state of Michigan.  He was, however, a conservative Republican(probably still is), married father of two sons, and staunch champion of family values.

Mr. Duvall's version of a "sex tape" came to light earlier this month.  Mr. Duvall, the soul of discretion, bragged, to a fellow legislator, about his extra-marital affairs, all on a live mike.  To be fair, he did not know that the committee room mikes went live a couple of minutes before the session was called back to order.

Let's treat this like a law school exam question.  "Identify any and all character attributes revealed by Assemblyman Duvall's conduct in this "affair"? (No pun intended)

A.  Hypocrisy-Certainly.  Champion of family values engages in extra-marital affairs with two women, at least one of whom is married.

B.  Infidelity-See A.  He was also not faithful to his mistresses.  This guy can't be faithful when he is being unfaithful.

SNL GLENN BECK SPOOF SEPTEMBER 24, 2009

To repeat, this is a spoof, and that is not an actual clip from a Glenn Beck Show on Fox News Channel, though any confusion is understandable.  This is from a Saturday Night Live Special Edition that ran on Thursday, September 24, 2009.

This post took just a few minutes and is just for fun, though a few minutes spent on Glenn are a few precious minutes I could have devoted to a more constructive use.  Alas, a sock drawer unsorted.

By the way, lest you think that the mugging at the camera is a bit too over the top, take a look at these covers from two of Glenn's books.  Fortunately, the copy of Common Sense I read did not have his "mug" on the cover.

 

   

Sometime soon, I'll show a promo Glenn made back in the days he was a Top 40 DJ.  Though some might say that Glenn is not the same guy he was 20-some years ago, when he used a chimp to promote his program and his career, I don't think much has changed.

LEE PLAZA TIME LAPSE

YouTube has a great video showing a time lapse of the great Lee Plaza in Detroit during a period of time from the 1970s to 2000.  Sad as this video is, it was put together before the roof was removed, which certainly adds to the evolution of desolation.

The video hasn't had a lot of views.  It deserves more.  And the Lee Plaza deserves a kinder fate.

I have written about the Lee Plaza before.  For some reason I find its fate sadder than that of the Michigan Central Depot, which many consider the seminal image of Detroit's perceived decline.

 

GREAT BLOG POST BY STEVE GURSTEN

Steve Gursten is the author of the Michigan Auto Lawyers Blog, part of his firm's Michigan Auto Law website. 

Yesterday Steve wrote a great piece entitled "The 'Set-Off' Insurance Company Scam".  It describes how Progressive Insurance Company sells its customers Uninsured Motorist Insurance Policies, which allow Progressive to deduct (set-off)  from the  coverage purchased, any medical expense or wage loss claim Progressive has paid on behalf of that customer--coverage for which Progressive also charges the customer.

It probably takes a fairly good understanding of the Michigan No-Fault Auto Insurance system (best of luck with that, Grasshopper) to appreciate what a--how do I say this delicately--rip off this for Michigan Progressive customers.

Anyway, Michigan law requires that all car owners buy auto insurance policies.  The same law specifies what coverage is required in those policies.  The policy covers a car driver/owner for his economic losses after an accident, no matter whose fault it is.  Coverage for medical expenses and wage loss is mandatory, collision damage coverage and uninsured motorist coverage (remember this last one) are not.

For example, if car A is stopped at a red light and is hit by car B (the driver of which was composing an important text message at the time), the drivers of both car A and B would look to their own insurance companies for payment of collision damage, medical expenses and wage loss arising out of the crash, even though the driver of car B was clearly at fault for the accident.  This arrangement, as required by law, is why we call Michigan a No-Fault state.  One little wrinkle no one likes is that if car A's owner did not have collision coverage in his policy, he could not sue the driver of car B or B's insurance company for the damage.  I never like explaining that to people.

The same law requires that all car owners carry liability coverage as well.  This means, in the previous example, that if the driver of car A was seriously injured due to car B's carelessness in causing the accident, the driver of car A can claim his "non-economic losses" (what has been come to be known as pain an suffering) from the driver and owner of car B.  State law sets the minimum permissible liability coverage at $20,000.  This coverage is supposed to protect you if you, God forbid, are careless and cause an accident.  This limit has stayed the same since 1972, thanks to the Michigan insurance lobby.  Premiums and profits have risen dramatically in 37 years.  Protection hasn't.

Not that car B's insurance company will cheerfully pay driver A's claim no matter how seriously injured he is. (Most insurance companies define serious, as "fatal", anything less will be subject to vigorous defense/denial before the company will part with any portion of that $20,000 policy).

FUN FACTS TO KNOW AND TELL

SADDAM HUSSEIN GIVEN KEY TO CITY OF DETROIT DURING COLEMAN YOUNG ADMINISTRATION

I consider this a post of great hope.  The city of Detroit has taken so many hits that it can be safely said to be the Chuck Wepner (see Tomato Can) of municipalities.  However, I learned today of the great resilience of the City of Detroit that makes me feel that the best days of the city are in the future.

A few lawyers from the office were at lunch today, discussing (don't know how this came up) the busts of former Detroit mayors which have been on display in the lobby of the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center (formerly known as and still correctly referred to as the City-County Building) for the last several months.  Some, like the bust of Hazen Pingree, go way back.  Unfortunately, Mayor Pingree's statue makes him look exactly like Fred Sanders, the late 19th Century Detroit confectioner of hot fudge sundae and "bumpy cake" fame.  Mayor Coleman Young is the most recent Detroit mayor represented, as he should be in the lobby of a building carrying his name.

At the mention of Mayor Young's name, Mark Grayell of our office pipes in with:  "Do you know that Coleman Young gave the key to the City of Detroit to Saddam Hussein?"  Quite frankly, I really thought I would have remembered a thing like that.  So, I headed to the good old Google site, the font of all knowledge, and well, stone the crows and pickle the lizards, it is true.

Back in 1979, a local Chaldean pastor, Rev. Jacob Yasso, met Hussein in 1979 at a banquet in Baghdad, where the pastor gave a speech commending the president for his kindness to Christians. After learning the Church, Chaldean Sacred Heart was in debt, Hussein gave Yasso $250,000.  On the pastor's return to the Detroit area, he convinced Mayor Young to reward Saddam with the key to the City of Detroit.  Rev. Yasso traveled to Baghdad, and gave Hussein the key, and the Church was further rewarded with another check for $200,000 from the Iraqi President.  Not bad, Rev.

Now, my dream of finding a photo of Coleman Young personally handing over the key to Saddam did not materialize, see picture, right, but the hope I take from this is undiminished.  If the City of Detroit can survive giving the key to the city to a man many consider the Third Antichrist prophesied by Nostradamus, it can certainly survive its more recent hiccups--convicted mayor (Fitzpatrick was not the first), auto company travail (again, not the first time), and the demolition of Tiger Stadium (well, I am not entirely sure about that one.)

“Dum spiro, spero (Latin), "While I breath, I hope"”

 

 

NEW MILLENNIUM TEA PARTIES

One of our "New Millennium Tea Parties" took place in Washington DC on Saturday, September 19, 2009.

Political commentator Glenn Beck was the driving force behind this tea party and others which took place around the country on the same day.  Beck did not attend any of the parties, though he stated, from his New York studio:  "Well hello America, I have to tell you I’m not in a very good mood today because I would much rather be, can you show the pictures of Washington, I would much rather be in Washington DC today…I’m not in a good mood because I would rather be there quite honestly, and standing in the crowd with people."

No doubt.  I am not a big fan of Glenn Beck and I don't watch him much.  I have, however, read his recent book, Common Sense.  Frankly, I found it lacking both in style and in substance.  My perception of his effort was not improved by comparison to  the original Thomas Paine work, which was included in the book,after Mr. Beck's effort.  I can't help but think that the original was attached to pad the very short Beck material to a massive length 167 pages.

Here is a video taken at the Washington party.  I admire the understated approach taken by the interviewer.  95 percent of the video is comprised of the attendees talking.  I did not see alot of informed opinion among the marchers.  I did not see the makings of a rebellion, peaceful or otherwise.