Iowa Edict - Commentary on Injury & Accident Law

Question: What should I do if my employer assaulted me at work? Out of rage, my employer struck me in the face at work. There has been similar behavior in the past. The police were called and a report was filed. The officers said that the charges would likely stick. Should I seek some sort of civil action against my employer as well? Would I need an employment lawyer or a personal injury lawyer for a case like this?

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Another film director stands accused surrounding Iowa’s film tax-credit program. See the linked article below.

It’s all going to come down to whether Wheeler, the former film chief, approved the expenditures and if he did, should those benefiting have believing the approval to be reasonable and legal under the law. What’s gone on with Iowa’s film credit tax program has been an eye opener for the state as well as a black eye. What should have been a good thing for the state has turned into a mess.

Barbara and I just returned from Beaufort, South Carolina where The Big Chill was filmed. (See Internet Movie Database)Having a blockbuster or classic film shot in a community can add to the culture and mystic. But doing it the way we did has to send a message to stay away.

California man charged with theft in film scandal, Des Moines Register, Lee Rood reporting, October 26, 2011. 

For a measely $300,000 you can find out why you don’t strip search students over the alleged theft of $100. In this instance it all started over the alleged theft of $100; money that was not found. See School District Pays $300k Over Strip Searches, Atlantic, Iowa. These school administrators should stop watching Boston Legal’s Denny Crane and start watching ABC’s Modern Family.

Follow this link to the Modern Family website.

When Good Kids Go Bad

See also this link. 

While some school districts are hot on the trail of the wrong suspect others are ignoring, allegedly due to federal regulations, drunk bus drivers. 

See Another school bus drunk driver case on Tuesday's post. It's what you call "bus"sted.

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Iowa’s state government is broken. The state ran out of money to pay the criminal defense lawyers and so unless they withdraw from the cases, they aren’t getting paid. The Iowa Legislature wanted to give the Governor the power to shift money around to get them paid. But Two-Paycheck-Terry won’t accept the gift; instead he’s challenging the lawyers to walk off the job, which if they do will set free all defendants in cases where the right to a speedy trial applies. No speedy trial – means dismissal. So while Two-Paycheck-Terry is fat and happy those doing low pay legal work for the State of Iowa get zippo.

Let's hope the criminals dont' get the idea to instruct their attorney there will be no waiving of a speedy trial.

Let the dominos begin to fall.

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Shoeless Joe - A teenager who had an argument with his family walked away from his home in Gowrie, Webster County sans his shoes. Rescue workers from 13 different agencies searched in below zero wind chill for the teenager. That was at 11:00 pm Saturday night. At 8:00 a.m. Sunday the 14-year-old was found in his home. He apparently snuck in the back door and is reported to have been discovered hiding under a pile of coats and blankets.

Lancaster, PA - Is a manure pit an attractive nuisance? A 4-year-old boy drowned after falling into a partially frozen manure pit on the family farm. The manure pit is described as 8-feet deep surrounded by a chain link fence and the pit is 42 feet in diameter.

Pink Pajamas – Inmates in Maricopa County detention center are provided pink thermal long johns and extra blankets. Anyone that gets cold in Arizona is probably a genetic weak link; join us in Iowa and then talk about cold.

Give me the TV Remote you Moron! - Meanwhile in Nevada, Iowa Story County inmates were involved in a fistfight over which television show to watch. The one guy is being charged with assault. I wonder if the fight was really over the color of their pajamas or jump suits. By-the-way it’s Nevada (sounds like potato) not Nevada (sounds like tomata).

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Already having pleaded guilty to federal charges in a $1.3 Billion Florida Ponzi Scheme a woman is free while she cooperates with the U.S. Government. The law firm where the Ponzi was being carried out is now bankrupt and shuttered. So the office manager finds herself unemployed. My source sends me a news story from the Sun Sentinel where it’s reported she’s receiving unemployment benefits provided by the law abiding taxpayers in Florida. How is this possible? What public policy awards convicted criminals who are awaiting incarceration? Why isn’t she in prison while she cooperates with federal authorities? This is all a part of the Participation Trophy Syndrome thinking.

• The Ponzi Victim and the Ponzi Whistleblower, November 17, 2009
• Apology Shield: Detecting Truth with a Broken Lie Detector, September 26, 2009
• What makes punching in when you’re not working wrong? March 30, 2010
• Participation Trophy Awarded to the Financial Planner with the Wrong Plan, April 19, 2010
• American Politics - Is it disgraceful to name the San Francisco sewer plant George W. Bush?, November 17, 2008
• American Politics - Melting down public opinion at the U.S. Treasury. How Hanks hankie and some crocodile tears made Congress weep and Wall Street jump for joy., November 24, 2008
• Convenience Store Sales of the Iowa Lottery Tickets Under the Microscope of Continuing Investigation

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What is an elocution?

• Right to Elocution: A Final Word From the Victim
• Elocution: a person's manner of speaking or reading aloud in public, including the control of both voice and gesture.

Judge Joel Novak was more than a little peeved this past week when delivering a message from the bench as he sentenced a convicted murderer to three consecutive life-in-prison terms. Keep in mind Judge Novak in the past seven months sentenced three convicted murderers to life in prison for crimes against women. He’s been judging for over 30 years and has seen and heard his fill of criminal defendants, cases and criminal elocutions. This was as he points out, one of the worst.

Moore: I Have No Remorse For TereseAnn’s Death, KCCI

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Even Good Parents Can Raise a Juvee - Not every apple falling from the tree is ripe.

“One of the oldest fundamental liberty interests consistently recognized by the Supreme Court is the interest of parents in the care, custody, and control of their children.” Justice Wiggins

This week the theme is “Was justice done?” Depending on who you ask justice has a different meaning. Even the same person will change their definition in a different situation; it can take on an entirely different meaning. Some people define justice from a moral or religious standpoint while others from a common sense standpoint and still others define it along the lines of trying to run a city or town or the State of Iowa. Many people define justice as the courts interpreting the law to support whatever it is they want to do having no regard for the rights of others. So how do you define justice?

Let’s begin today with a recent ruling from the Iowa Supreme Court having to do with the City of Davenport ordinance that attempts to punish parents when their children act as juvenile deliquents. The ordinance made the parent criminally liable when the child violated the law.

In this case before the Iowa Supreme Court the court struck down as unconstitutional the City of Davenport’s parental responsibility ordinance. One of several interesting aspects of the case is the dissent by Ternus and Cady choosing deference to the Iowa legislature rather than to allow the Courts through this ruling to protect the rights of its citizens through the Constitutional mechanism. One has to wonder whether the removal campaign is having an influence.

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Today in the email bag was a question and although it’s a bit before 7:00 a.m. as I’m trying to understand what the person is asking me I have to wonder if I’m 30-years younger and going through the experience of once again being a 1-L. A 1-L is how we refer to first year law students. Scott Turow made a similar term popular in his book by that same name. Here is the question. Read it and see how far you can get before scratching you head and wondering, “What is he asking me?”

If a company providing services, in which those services are paid for and terms of service are placed in which the paying parties have signed an agreement to and said company does not deal with violators whom breech these terms of service where everyone is expected to adhere to in a timely fashion. Is said company in breach of contract due to negligence of protecting those very people who agreed to said company's contract?

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Why should Lindsay Lohan be held in contempt of court?

If the Court doesn’t hold Lindsay Lohan in contempt the message to those before the court is clear: The Court isn’t to be taken seriously and justice is about as real as a reality TV show.

I have to wonder if violence against lawyers is escalating. We’ve had some recent provocations against lawyers that make me pause and consider why. Right here in Iowa on July 9, 2010 we had a lawyer being assaulted while standing in a Dubuque County court room. It’s not the first and certainly won’t be the last. Several years ago a lawyer in Polk County was assaulted by his client while standing before the Court. Assuming the lawyer didn’t fall asleep during the trial, the defendant had to be mad at the judge or jury and not his own lawyer. The lawyer is there on the side of the defendant; so why the lawyer?

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The Fourth of July parade in Iowa’s Bellevue was upended when runaway horses trampled 24 people, killing one and injuring the other 23. It is said to have to do with the bridle of one horse rubbing another. The driver lost control and the rest is history.

Related media coverage:

• Caught on Tape: Horses' Rampage at Parade Kills 1, Injures Others - Chicago Tribune
• July 4th Horse Stampede Saddens Iowa - Injury Board Blog Network: St. Cloud, MN

They will loudly proclaim that no one should sue! No way, no how; after all that would be un-American! Wouldn't it?

Well that’s exactly what I’m going to suggest. After all who considers going to a parade to get killed or maimed by a stampede of horses? Hell, no one does. To those who say horses do unexpected things I say, so what, who cares and what difference does it make that a horse acts without reason? The object that acted without control was entered into a parade and within a few feet of people sitting in lawn chairs. And, it was predictable.

Think this is the first time horses have stampeded the crowd at a parade?

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