Fear in the Court Room

Fear plays an important part in litigation.

Lawyers are afraid of losing, or perhaps intimidated by opposing counsel, and depending on the judge, they may also fear the jurist selected for the trial.

Big Pharm & The Doctors vs The Tort Lawyers

Eventually, it will happen. There will come a day of reckoning.

Eventually, it’s going to be common knowledge that the powerful pharmaceutical industry, aided by gullible doctors and a host of other well-meaning, but ignorant individuals and entities, have been engaged in the kind of cover-up akin to the one the cigarette manufacturers engaged in for decades. The tobacco industry knew for many years that their product was harmful. They had studies that showed the harm. After years of winning cases, they suddenly began to lose. It seems information had leaked out about the secret studies, and the information about the studies was no longer a closely-held secret. The “other side” knew about it. (For an excellent piece on the cancer "industry" see Breast Cancer Deception.)

Child Molesters in the Church - Church Policy

Most Protestant churches do not have a “church policy” regarding child protection.

That’s unfortunate, because it can have serious consequences. If an incidence of child molesting hits your church, be sure that a lawsuit is likely to hit the church. That "hit" could be a crippling financial blow that might destroy it. It does not have to be that way, if the church would take certain steps to protect itself legally. Those steps necessarily involve the protection of the children in the care and custody of the church.

Heparin: The Road to China has Potholes

On November 2, 2007, I underwent open heart surgery. During the surgery, I was administered the drug Heparin. I had an "allergic" reaction to it. Subsequently, my recovery was pretty dicey. I had days in ICU where I suffered from extreme bouts of heat, so much so I had to have a fan blowing directly on me. That diminished, but a week later, I still had periods of time when I'd go through several hours of extreme heat.

Sex Discrimination in a Nutshell

The Law

The main statutory (law-based) protection against sex discrimination is under federal law and is found under what is commonly called “Title VII.” The Civil Rights Act (See: 42 U.S.C. §2000e, et. seq.) provides that it is unlawful for an employer (private employers with 15 or more employees, employment agencies, and labor organizations) to “fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual, or to otherwise discriminate against any individual because of such individual’s ...sex....” 42 U.S.C. §2000e-2(a)(1). Sexual harassment is also prohibited, though it is not specifically mentioned under the statute. The United States Supreme Court in the case Meritor Savings Bank, FSB vs. Vinson, 477 U.S. 57, 67, 106 S.Ct. 2399 (1986), held sexual harassment was in fact, an element that can be implied to exist within the statute.

Beware of Filing a Discrimination Case pro se

The Civil Rights arena is a very complex one. It’s not an area of the law well suited for the unwary, nor is it where someone can truly compete without a lawyer. There’s just too much that the lay person is not going to know that is crucial to their case.

For example, most Plaintiffs who file a discrimination lawsuit pro se (unrepresented by counsel) fail to understand the vital role of the process of discovery. It can be difficult for a plaintiff to remain in court with their case even with a lawyer, but without doing proper discovery, the odds are pretty strong that your case is going to be tossed out of court on the Defendant’s Motion for Summary Judgment. This is a motion that says, in essence, that there isn’t a material issue of fact raised by the Plaintiff to be tried to the jury or the court. Thus, if the court decides there is no genuine, material issues of fact to be tried, it may issue a judgment for the Defendant, dismissing the case. (This often happens in these cases, even when represented by counsel.)