Sometimes Lawyers Are Punished

Although it is rare, sometimes lawyers are punished. In Minnesota several attorneys have been charged with conspiracy to commit health care fraud. 

There a lot of layers to just how bad and unsurprising this is. 

First off, as far as I can tell, the Lawyers Professional Responsibility Board (LPRB) only took action until after the lawyers were charged. This is "normal" for the LPRB as they virtually never discipline attorneys until after they are charged by law enforcement.  Which just demonstrates what a farce self-enforcement is. 

Secondly, several chiropractors were also recently charged for similar fraud. Unsurprising. To be a so called "doctor" of chiropractory all you need to do is graduate from a chiropractic school. To graduate pretty much all you need to do is pay the bill. Chiropractory is not a medical science. It is an alternative to medicine. Its was invented, according to its inventor, when a ghost informed him of it. Like traditional Chinese medicine (which Mao cynically promoted simply because he could not afford real medicine for the populace) it has at best a placebo effect. Just like faith healing. Although to be fair, the placebo effect is real. 

Thirdly, it is hardly shocking that insurance fraud exists. Or at least it should not be. It is easy to do and quite financially rewarding. Other areas were fraud is rampant include automobile repair, roofing, and small business expenses. It isn't that all these areas are 100% corrupt but crime is very commonly committed. And sadly tolerated. 

Nothing, however, is quite as bad as family law. 

Law Firm Accused Of Crimes

I was far from shocked to learn a former Wall Street Journal reporter is suing a law firm for hiring Indian operatives to illegally hack into his emails. But then I saw that an aviation executive is suing the same firm.  Then I looked up the firm. It is Dechert LLP, which happens to be one of the largest law firms in the world. In 2018 it was ranked as the 43rd highest grossing law firm in the world.

The allocations, if true, mean that one of the largest law firms in the world in engaged in criminal activity as part of its normal operations. And they don't even do family law, which is the legal practice where crime by lawyers occurs most often. 

I guess I should not be surprised given people like the John Choi, the Ramsey County Attorney in Minnesota believe lawyers are immune to committing fraud. All lawyers not just ones in family law. 

Just how bad is the legal industry anyway? 

Alex Jones Verdict

Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones was ordered by a jury to pay $965 million to family members of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims’ relatives and an FBI agent for promoting the idea the shooting was a hoax. Good. 

A few weeks ago the Supreme Court ruled Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit against MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell can move forward. They declined to consider Lindell’s attempt to block the case. Dominion is seeking $1.3 billion in damages, claiming it was harmed by false statements from Lindell and other allies of former President Donald Trump that Dominion rigged its machines in favor of Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election. Good. I hope Dominion wins its case. 

The above cases are defamation cases. Jones and Lindell make false statements which harmed people emotionally and financially. 

In my case I have absolute evidence crimes were committed which harmed me and my children emotionally and financially. Yet, it has proven almost impossible to even get a lawyer to take on my case. Why? Because corruption it the legal system is so deep and widespread that even lawyers who to try to act honestly are unwilling to take on cases related to crime within the justice system for fear of reprisal. 

Hopefully, some day justice will come for me and my family. I keep trying. 

Judge Caught Whipping Girlfriend

Unbeknownst to him at the time, Michigan judge Jason Kolkema was filmed apparently whipping his girlfriend with a belt during an argument in his western Michigan apartment. This was two weeks after winning a primary for the circuit court.

Now you might view this as a one off which will be dealt with quickly, which is what I initially thought, until I learned judge Kolkema has a long history of inappropriate behavior, possibly including getting away with clearly criminal actions.  

Kolkema, arraigned Sept. 19 on domestic violence charges, has a history of losing his temper, behaving violently around women and children – including spitting on a 12-year-old girl – and has violated court orders, lied about his relationship with his client-girlfriend, battled an Adderall addiction and failed to pay child support, according to a decade's worth of court and police records reviewed by the Free Press, part of the USA TODAY Network, and interviews with multiple people tied to him and his girlfriend.

Yet, despite all this, he was able to maintain his position as a judge. 

The reality is judges, as well as lawyers in general, do not have to abide by the same rules and laws as everyone else. This is called corruption. 

Should The State Stay Out of The Marriage Business?

I have never really understood why the state is involved with marriage. I totally get religious marriages and contracts between two people for whatever they want, but why do we have this odd institution of civil marriage? 

Historically only the rich were civilly married and that was generally because marriage was considered an alliance between families. Love had little to do with it. It was all about property rights. 

A Slate article from eight years ago is still relevant: 

If civil marriage were to be abolished, we could replace that moribund institution with a more personalized, a la carte menu of contractual rights and responsibilities. (Religious marriage would be left intact, of course. Houses of worship will always retain the freedom to perform traditional rites and to be as inclusive or exclusive about them as they choose—the free exercise of religion is enshrined in the First Amendment of the Constitution.) Something like a standard civil union arrangement would still be available for traditional couples, but two roommates could share property in common and serve as health care proxies for one another without taking on any additional rights or responsibilities if they didn’t wish to. A tenant could have the right to continue living in the space she had long rented without being responsible for funeral rites or having any claim to her landlord’s property. A polyamorous triad could share legal rights and responsibility for any children that came of their relationship without our having to go through a protracted political fight over whether marriage should be allowed for more than two people.

Eliminating civil marriage would inject hundreds of billions of dollars into our economy because we would not be wasting all that money on litigation surrounding marriages, especially when they fall apart.  

Culturally, I would love to see the day when a person can call another person "wife' of "husband" simply as a a term of personal commitment rather than government decree. 

Family Court Corruption

Here is a series of videos with an interesting perspective on family court corruption from someone with first hand experience. What happened to him when speaking out is especially telling. On of the most disheartening aspects of corruption in the legal system is that doing the right thing only makes it worse. 

How It Is Supposed To Work

Not only are attorneys not supposed to commit crimes, which they clearly did in my case, but they are not supposed to even discuss anything with their client which might lead to a crime. Nor are the supposed to conceal information from the court about a past crime.  

This is what is supposed to happen. But it doesn't.

The attorney-client privilege protects most communications between clients and their lawyers. But, according to the crime-fraud exception to the privilege, a client's communication to her attorney isn't privileged if she made it with the intention of committing or covering up a crime or fraud.

Because the attorney-client privilege belongs to the client, the client's intent determines whether the exception applies. Most courts will apply the exception even if the attorney had no knowledge of, and didn't participate in, the actual crime or fraud.

The crime-fraud exception applies if:

• the client was in the process of committing or intended to commit a crime or fraudulent act, and
• the client communicated with the lawyer with intent to further the crime or fraud, or to cover it up.

Whether the crime-fraud exception applies depends on the content and context of the communication. The exception covers communications about a variety of crimes and frauds, including (to name just a few)

• suborning perjury" (asking an attorney to present testimony she knows is false)
• destroying or concealing evidence
• witness tampering, and
• concealing income or assets