Iowa Edict - The Participation Trophy Syndrome

Iowa Employer's Failure to Carry Work Comp Insurance to be Prosecuted

Steve Lombardi — Wed, 09 May 2012 04:00:23 -0600

Pressure created by Reporter Lee Rood’s Des Moines Register stories about how workers suffer has caused a stir with the Iowa Attorney General’s Office who this past week agreed to pursue enforcement of the law requiring Iowa’s employers to carry workers’ compensation insurance. The stories detailed how injured workers were not covered under a workers' compensation insurance policy because employers failed to buy the insurance. The worker gets injured, files a valid claim, wins an award and then sits there because the employers just don't pay. If you think this is no big deal consider that other insurance policies may preclude paying on claims from work injuries. Pick up the Des Moines Register and read Lee Rood's reporting.

See Reader’s Watchdog: Iowa City workers’ comp case will be prosecuted, Lee Rood, April 22, 2012

Reporter Rood’s column is described as; Lee Rood’s Reader’s Watchdog column helps Iowans get answers and accountability from public officials, the justice system, businesses and nonprofits. Contact her atlrood@dmreg.com or by calling (515) 284-8549. To read past columns, go to DesMoines Register.com/readerswatchdog.

What’s a Pulitzer Prize?

]]>Who has won and in what categories are the Pulitzer Prizes?

Is there a Pulitzer Prize for Public Service?

Pulitzer-winning journalists share their tips

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ads-cYOv9Q

In real estate law what is a straw buyer?

Steve Lombardi — Tue, 01 May 2012 04:00:29 -0600

A straw buyer is a middle man that acts as a legitimate buyer but who is other than they appear to be to the seller or lender. It used to be a straw buyer was someone who would shield the final buyer from the seller to just keep the price down. Such as Wal-Mart hiring me to be a straw buyer for 100 acres of ground they want me to buy for them. They pay me to legitimately buy the land but to keep their intentions to build a Wal-Mart store secret. I get paid $100,000 to buy the ground and then to immediately sell it to their corporate real estate department. That’s completely legitimate and smart business because if the seller knew the ground was to be used to build a store for Wal-Mart the price would increase by more than tenfold. So what is wrong with a straw buyer?

]]>Well in some instances straw men are used to get around regulatory requirements that would otherwise preclude a person or company from buying a piece of property. Such as with repossessed homes; with repossessed homes, HUD Homes, for a set period of time (I believe it’s the first 120 days) only people who intend to live in the homes can bid on them. Investors are precluded from buying these homes when their intention is not to live in them, but to resell. Where straw buyers get in trouble is attempting to gain an advantage to do an end-run on the laws of the land. That is my friend, what they call the last straw.

Investopedia has a good definition of the straw buyer as well as it sometimes being a legitimate business transaction.

Now let’s not forget our friends at the Mortgage Fraud Blog, she has another ten articles that included a few about straw buyers being criminally prosecuted.

Mortgage Fraud Blog - Perp Walk - 10 new articles

In This Issue...

Developer Admits Scam that Contributed to Bank Failure
Real Estate Investor Indicted for Stealing from Clients
Mother Sentenced for Forgery and Straw Buyer Conspiracy
Real Estate Investor Admits Foreclosure Bid Rigging
Lawyer, Loan Office and Loan Processor Admit $9M Fraud
Alleged Loan Modification Scammer Arrested
Orchestrator of Straw Buyer Scam Sentenced
Investor Sentenced for Cash Back Mortgage Scam
Foreclosure Rescuer Sued for Failing to Deliver
Real Estate Investor Convicted of Running Ponzi Scheme
Search Mortgage Fraud Blog - Perp Walk

The Disability Debate - What came first, the chicken or the egg?

Steve Lombardi — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 04:16:58 -0600

Yesterday Investor’s Business Daily had this headline, “5.4 Mi Americans Join Disability Roll Under Pres. Obama.” It could have easily read, “5.4 Mil Fewer Americans Joined Disability Rolls Then Under A Pres. Romney”. Literally the first headline is true and it’s totally meaningless. It’s totally useless information and in the context to which it’s being used it’s deceitful. The current Administration didn’t cause the economic problems, the Bush Administration did.

I’m offended when the editors assume I don’t have enough intelligence to appreciate the slant on the article is intended to create further mindless prejudice against the Obama Administration while doing nothing to resolve the unemployment problem. Let me say, I’m a registered Republican. In Iowa you are either a Republican or a Democrat because you can’t be a registered Independent. I vote my conscience and have never fallen into the mold of being a non-thinking party member. Democrats spend way too much money, sort of like the Bush Administration did. You see there isn’t any difference between the two Parties. They are evil twins. The one says they won't overspend, then they do. And the other says we never do and does.

]]>This sitting President didn’t create the economic calamity. He inherited it and we the people put him in office because of what 8 years with a Bush Administration did to us while it allowed Romney’s cohorts at Bain Capital to run roughshod over the American economy while they pillaged and plundered.

Bottom Line: Unlike the Scarecrow, most of us aren’t without a brain.

Here is why I like to hand wash the supper dishes

Steve Lombardi — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 04:01:54 -0600

Before we begin I will say laugh if you want to, but I may just be right about this theory that links the automatic dishwashwer and the birth of terrorism as we know it today. I love to wash dishes by hand. There is something comforting about having your hands submerged in hot soapy water along with the immediate gratification of a job well done. Being from the hand-wash-dish camp it goes without saying that I hate the automatic dishwashers that most people love. I guess you could call me a fanatic about hand washing the dishes. I shouldn't say it publicly, but it's sort of like getting in touch with my feminine side.

For as many times as I've been single or married for that matter, I’ve only turned the dishwasher on 3 times. And that’s only because friends told me if I didn’t run it at least once in a while, the seals would dry out and eventually leak. So, I turned it on just to see if it was leaking. On each of those occasions it was empty with not a single dish. As I stood there watching to see if it leaked I’d already washed the dishes by hand.

This morning I got to washing dishes (by hand) and as I've been known to do, I daydreamed and pondered the inponderable. A window is a valuable accessory when washing dishes by hand. The automatic dishwasher can be in a closet, but not a sink to hand wash dishes; it's got to be under a window. Windows and washing dishes go hand in hand. Having a window in front of the sink is as important an accessory, as important as is the right dish soap. I like to use purple soap, the kind that smells like lavender. The lavender smell is important to put you at ease and in the right frame of mind to think about life in general.

]]>

A dishwasher is a mechanical device for cleaning dishes and eating utensils. Dishwashers can be found in restaurants and private homes. Source: Wikipedia

While waiting for the coffee to brew, washing the dishes can be a good way to spend a few idle minutes. The entire process of washing dishes by hand is therapeutic. I’m of the opinion that like hand written letter writing, not enough people partake.

IT'S DOLLY TIME AGAIN

My mother (Dolly) raised her five children to hand wash, dry and put away the dinner dishes directly after the meal concluded. It was a time for us to talk, tease and learn to work as a team. I most always did the washing, my sister dried, as did my brother Charlie while Kevin and Bill used stools to reach up in the cupboards to put the clean and dried dishes away. There is a lot you can learn from washing dishes. Like if you’re living with a terrorist. I suspect that my sister is, but I've never been able to come up with the proof to convince my mother. I've also suspected that I'm adopted, but that subject will have to wait for another day.

From my childhood I learned to detest the automatic dishwasher. Please bare with me while we talk dishwasher history and then I'll get back to my theory involving terrorism and the automatic dishwashwer. There is a dispute in history about who invented the auto version.

Shelbyville, Illinois claims its own Josephine Cochran invented it sometime before patent no. 355,139 was approved on December 28, 1886. Josephine received an award for her invention at the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago, Illinois. Meanwhile some claim that in 1850 Joel Houghton received a patent of a hand-powered device made of wood, which was hand cranked to spray water into the dishes. You can tell he didn’t do much dishwashing; after all he was an Australian rules footballer with the Fremantle Football Club. All arguments aside it wasn’t until the early 1920’s that dishwashers began having permanent plumbing. The first dishwasher for home use was invented by William Howard Livens that included a front door in the design. As word has it, amongst those who care, electrical heating elements weren’t added until the 1940’s. Which matters little because all the time they were inventing the automatic dishwasher people were still washing dishes by hand and talking to one another and learning how to work towards cooperation and resolving who would get to use the shower before all the hot water was gone.

Unlike manual dishwashing, which relies largely on physical scrubbing to remove soiling, the mechanical dishwasher cleans by spraying hot water, typically between 55 to 75 °C (130 to 170 °F) at the dishes, with lower temperatures used for delicate items. A mix of water and detergent is used for cleaning purposes, followed by clean water to remove the detergent residue. Some dishwashers have multiple wash and rinse periods within the complete cycle. In some dishwashers, a rinsing aid (also called rinse aid) can be added to the rinse cycle to improve drying and avoid water spots remaining on dry items. Source: Wikipedia

Did you know the automatic dishwasher uses either 15 gallons per load or 9 gallons per load in water saver mode which doesn’t even clean the dishes.

Hand washing uses about 3 gallons of water per load, unless you leave the rinse water running; then it uses as much water as fracting an oil well in North Dakota. I suggest you stack the dishes as you wash them, then rinse a bunch at one time.

Okay but let's get back to terrorism and the dishwasher. In about 1937 the League of Nations added convention language speaking of terrorist acts as we know them today.

1937. League of Nations convention language: "All criminal acts directed against a State and intended or calculated to create a state of terror in the minds of particular persons or a group of persons or the general public."^[7]

And this ladies and gentlemen is circumstantial evidence of my point about washing dishes, using the automatic dishwasher and the birth and science of terrorism. When we were washing the dishes by hand we never ever considered killing anyone beyond our own siblings. Our concerns were centered on whether the dish had to be rewashed or wasn’t dry enough. Explosives and C2 weren’t ever mentioned. A punch in the arm now and then; maybe a bubble fight, but never a terrorist act occurred. Not ever on Gary Circle in Westboro (Massachusetts) or on Woodland Avenue in Rhode Island did anyone in the Lombardi family ever think of committing a terrorist acts.

I'm thoroughly convinced that if more people washed dishes by hand there would be fewer terrorists and less violence. Okay, maybe not but it would be nice to think it was that simple. Even if it’s not, you ought to teach your children to wash dishes by hand so they have time to talk and to learn to work; work as a team.

Onward we march… or should I say to wash the dishes.

Only kids trained to lose will accept a participation trophy,

Steve Lombardi — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 04:00:10 -0600

… Because winners want to win one.

I just returned from a vacation so the last thing I want to write about is the law practice. Lawyers are real people and we too get tired of talking shop; especially after sitting in the hot sun on a white sandy beach. So, this week I’m sort of focusing on other subjects. Today, I’m going to post about a subject having little to do with law, but then again it does have to do with character development and that is an important part of practicing law ethically. So maybe I am posting about lawyers.

Every year in early spring I begin to think about soccer practice; I no longer coach, but can’t seem to get it out of my system. So this time of year the mind simply starts to slip into the coaching mode. Once while sitting in the airport in Moscow I made a bet that in 15 minutes I could convince the entire group of climbers that only losers will accept a participation trophy.

]]>There is something about anticipating a new season that stirs the emotions and this season is no different. Every coach has an obligation to coach not just an improved skill set, but good character development. Good character develops from learning how to lose and from the feeling a young boy or girl gets from not winning, but wanting to win.

To be a winner, you have to hate to lose.

To know how to win you have to know the feeling of losing. Sort of like the sweet and sour sauce philosophy of life. There is no sweet if you haven’t tasted sour. It’s all part of life’s rhythm known as the yin and yang.

From Wikipedia, "yin and yang", is used to describe how polar opposites or seemingly contrary forces are interconnected and interdependent in the natural world, and how they give rise to each other in turn. Opposites thus only exist in relation to each other.

Parents who want to save their children from feeling bad are missing the point of growing up. The experience of youth must include failure for them to know how to become a winner. There is no winning without the experience of failure; and vice versa.

So what do you think? Did I win this bet again?

Motivating Winners – Why practice if you will give me a trophy?

Any Given Sunday, Inch by Inch, Al Pacino – As a player you develop a winning attitude, it can’t be given in the form of a piece of plastic.
Miracle on Ice, Herb Brooks – You earn the right to be a winner.
Iowa Wresting Intro Video, 2009
ESPN, The Season, Iowa Wrestling
2012 Iowa High School Wrestling, John Meeks, Cory Clark and Megan Black, 2012
Diego Maradona, Magic of Maradona, 2011
Diego Maradona Skills, Diego isn’t exactly a model citizen but his commitment to the game was and still is remarkable
The winner’s skill-set improves daily inch by inch, Ronaldinho versus Cristiano Ronaldo, 2009
No participation trophy zone, Playing to have fun, Ronaldinho, C. Ronaldo, henry and robinho, 2006
Crazy Skill, 2008, developing a winning style
Shaun White, the Flying Tomato, Winter X Games 2012

Simply stated, we need to stop developing skills about how to lose…

What’s your favorite motivation idea?

Is it the pizza delivery guy's responsibility to deliver justice?

Steve Lombardi — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 04:00:35 -0600

If you don't carry workers’ compensation insurance why isn't it a felony? After all workers depend on employers having it. When injured workers can incur tens of thousands of dollars in medical bills. In this case that is exactly what appears to have happened and his case is falling on deaf ears.

A safety net should never become a political hot potato and that’s exactly what has happened with Iowa’s workers’ compensation insurance program. First you have the Governor arbitrarily reducing the Industrial Commissioner’s salary and this week Reader’s Watchdog, published Failure to pay worker’s comp called significant problem. Actually I don’t understand the title, not even a little bit. You see I don’t care if there is just one case, (which there isn’t), when even one employer fails to carry required workers’ compensation coverage it is a significant problem. Most people can’t fully appreciate it until they are on the receiving end of being injured and they find out only after incurring significant medical bills.

The only way it’s not significant, is if it’s someone else who is getting injured. When it’s you it’s significant. The title says it all about how the public perceives what it cares about and in turn so does Iowa's Attorney General. It’s a further sign of our moral decay. I guess unless there is a lot of publicity to be had no politiican is going to care.

]]>And what about criminal penalties for employers who fail to follow the law? Why is it fraud if a worker seeks benefits illegally but it’s not fraud if an employer fails to provide the insurance, which the law requires them to buy? Aren’t workers entitled to expect employers to follow the rule of law? Employers expect the same of employees, but what, employees can’t expect the same of employers? It’s preposterous that one gets prison and the other don’t even get a second glance.

Richard Homan is the worker injured who got the brush off. Were his medical bills paid or not? You can’t tell from reading the article. He got injured in 2006 when he was protecting the employer’s business from two robbers. For his bravery he gets the cold shoulder. You mean to tell me the owners of Northern Lights Pizza in six years haven’t been able to pull a few thousand bucks out of the cash register to do what the Industrial Commissioner's order requires them to do?

And what does the Attorney General do to enforce the law? Nothing, nadda, zilch, zippo. They sort of blame the injured worker by telling him they will do nothing to assist him unless he can prove criminal neglect. Are you kidding me? Isn’t that your job? Is it the pizza delivery guy’s responsibility to deliver justice?

This is so unfair I can’t even believe I’m reading it in the news.

For the rest of you workers just be on notice that when you come sit in front of the lawyer’s desk with outrage wondering why no one is doing anything about your benefits that put food on the table in front of your kids, remember Iowa’s turning workers’ compensation into a political football game enforced only for those in power. The rest of you, good luck – go buy a lottery ticket.

Hey buddy, I’m Italian and pizza is in my blood; come on down and let’s roll some dough while we find the keys to the cash registers. If the AG’s office won’t do its job to help you, I’ll help you. Your problem may not be important enough for anyone else but I'm guessing it is to you and yours.

Onward we march...

Q&A: What can I do if I am caught driving without a license again?

Steve Lombardi — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 04:00:52 -0600

Question: What can I do if I am caught driving without a license again? I was in an accident; I do not have a license. Took a chance to get back and work. I have been caught before and this will make it my third felony driving while suspended. The ticket written was only for not providing a license, what can I do?

Answer: Okay hotshot let’s get real here. What you say doesn't make sense: there is no charge of felony driving while suspended, so I'm guessing there is more going on than you've alluded to. Otherwise, the answer to your question will depend upon the reason you don't have a license in the first place. Are you suspended or barred? Why are you suspended or barred? What happened the prior times you were arrested? What else is in your criminal history? Are you on probation or parole? Depending upon the answers to those questions you could be looking at a very minimal fine or as much as prison, and additional license suspensions.

And one more thing, stop making excuses for criminal behavior. You said, "Took a chance to get back and work." What does that mean? I suspect the devil is in the details behind that statement. Where were you driving to? Huh? Cat got your tongue? The judges aren't stupid, you think the prosecutor is going to be played that easily? You didn't say you were heading to work so throwing that tidbit in won't get you to first base.

The fact is you just struck out.

FIFTY WAYS TO FIND LEGAL WORK AND EARN A LIVING AS A PRACTICING LAWYER

Steve Lombardi — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 04:28:45 -0600

What is the Participation Trophy Syndrome? It's the development of bad character brought about through telling children they are winners, just for showing up. Only losers will accept a participation trophy, winners want to win one.

We have way too many lawyers out of work with not enough open positions to hire them all. If you're one of the unemployed lawyers you must be asking, how can you get a law related job or how can you get back to work? Let's explore that issue today.

Just keep in mind that you were born in the USA... and whining isn't allowed; being tough is though.

First I'm going to say, stop ya whining and griping about law schools and how they defrauded you and promised you the moon if you would only pay them $150,000. Let's face it no one twisted your arm to apply to law school. You did it voluntarily. What you are finding out is what we all figured out shortly after leaving law school. That if they paid us what we were worth they would get free labor. My first job was in Waterloo, Iowa. It paid me $17,500 per year in salary, no overtime, no benefits and one weeks paid vacation. When I asked Jim Hellman what hours I was supposed to work he said, "You're expected to work as long as it takes you to get your work done." Fair enough... My student loans were $470 per month, I had three rug rats running around and one on the way. I had no clients, no resources but I was hungry and woke up the same way every morning - I was afraid to be poor. But what I did have was a bar card, knowledge, skills to research and write with an ability to argue a point. And so do you, so stop griping about no one handing you a participation trophy and get busy learning how to be a practicing lawyer.

Get used to it, in real life no one is handing out participation trophies. As one elderly woman once said to me, "There's nothing wrong with this younger generation that a good depression wouldn't cure."

So stop the whining and get busy; your first job is to get busy learning how to be a practicing lawyer and learning skills that will make you a lawyer and a valuable one. After all, let's face it you have near zero skills, no clients, no experience and at this point a bad attitude. So leave the attitude behind and let's get busy mending fences so you become presentable.

Constant bitching about how your law school can't find you a job is like the guy shown in the picture; what law firm wants to hire someone who is working to alienate the rest of the bar?

HERE ARE WAY MORE THAN FIFTY WAYS TO EARN A LIVING AS AN UNEMPLOYED AND INEXPERIENCE LAWYER

1. Start your own firm.

2. Volunteer at a firm to get your foot in the door.

3. Work, even if you have to volunteer, at Legal Aid to gain experience, learn how to try a case, how to win, how to deal with clients and get to meet other lawyers in the courtroom and out.

4. Read about someone's case, research the issues and send it to the first chair lawyer.

5. Volunteer to assist a County District Judge with research to get yourself into a courtroom, make a friend in the court system who can then sell you, your skills and your determination to be a lawyer. Show some guts and determination.

]]>6. Create a niche blog, research the law and write daily one article of legal significance to get you known and to create a resume builder that will sell you.

7. Apply in every state agency that has legal jobs.

8. Apply to every insurance company for a claims job adjusting claims.

9. Check with the State Bar Association for job postings.

10. Check daily with the every law school placement center in your state and the state where you would consider moving.

11. Write a Law Review article and submit it for publication.

12. Write guest blogs for practicing attorneys with a working blog.

13. Create a niche business, like service of process or legal investigation services, that get you in the profession doing something useful.

14. Go through the Iowa Code and locate every section that will allow the winner attorney fees as a part of the recovery. Then, after you research and understand the law, market yourself on the Internet and to law firms in that area.

15. Market yourself as a lawyer who will do work other lawyers either don't want to do, can't do or don't have the time to do. (i.e., small claims, FED actions, nuisance actions, small divorces, collections work, etc.)

Let's face it, if all you gotta worry about is unemployment you're luckier than some. Remember Vietnam?

16. Offer to write posts for lawyers with blogs who don't have the time to market.

17. Write articles and letters to the editor explaining legal issues to get yourself known in the community.

18. Join the Chamber of Commerce and attend the meetings to get to know the local leaders who may have a lead where you can get a job.

19. Check all area prosecutor's offices to see if they have part time positions available.

20. Volunteer at the State Bar Association.

21. Attend every job's fair you can find.

22. Read the newspaper want ads.

23. Get in the Internet and locate every website that advertises legal jobs.

24. Get acquainted with every headhunter in your city and town.

25. Contact legal headhunters online and ask them via email, what else you can do and where you should look for a legal job.

26. Add sensible, not angry or sour, and intelligent, thoughtful comments on legal blogs.

27. Contact the State unemployment agency and register for email notifications for open positions.

28. Take something, anything legal in nature that will give you experience and something else to talk about besides the amount of your student loans and how you got ripped off by the law school.

29. Call every insurance company you can locate on a daily basis asking about openings.

30. Apply for a teaching position at a community college or for-profit secondary school to teach legal classes.

31. Apply for a teaching position at the State Real Estate Commission Continued Education and Licensing classes. Offer to teach the legal classes.

32. Go online, visit blogs where lay people ask legal questions; answer the questions and offer to assist for a reduced fee.

33. Register, take the classes and then market yourself as a low-cost mediator for divorce cases.

34. Advertise, ethically, to do flat-fee divorces, small claim cases and landlord-tenant disputes.

35. Offer to work for nothing in a law office if they will teach you how to handle certain kinds of cases. (i.e., workers' compensation, small claims, divorce, family law, bankruptcy, landlord-tenant types of case.)

36. Learn how to handle and then advertise your services to do bankruptcy work.

37. Send a letter out to as many lawyers as you can locate offering to take any small cases they do not want.

38. Send letters to lawyers offering to handle their 'fish files'.

39. Offer to teach research and writing at the local law school.

40. Contact local unions and factories where immigrants like to work, then hold free Q&A sessions on Saturday mornings. You'll meet people with problems and you will pick up cases.

41. Take out an ad in the local shopper offering your services.

42. Contact nursing homes and offer a Q&A session for the elderly on a weekly basis.

43. Put up an ad at the local super market bulletin board or the local taverns offering low rates for standard legal services.

44. Take out an ad in every church bulletin you can locate. They are cheap and people who need confession also usually need lawyers.

45. Offer a low cost brief writing service.

46. Offer a low cost research service.

47. Change your attitude. If you're really angry see a counselor, get medicated, workout and get over it; life isn't fair and no one said it was going to be fair.

48. Get in good physical condition; work out daily. At least walk and stop shoving the food in your pie hole.

49. Get your financial affairs in order and if you don't know how to start seek advice. Hell, call me and I'll try to help you figure it out. Let's face it not all those student loans you owe were spent on your education. My guess is you bought fashionable clothes, iPods, iPads, beer, partied, went on vacations, had cable TV, iTune purchases, weekly Netflix, a cell phone, smoked and wasted a lot of what you borrowed. One elderly lady once said to me, "There is nothing wrong with this generation that a good depression won't cure." If this is too much to handle go to number 50.

50. Stop whining and get busy figuring out your life and how to earn a living. You've go marketable skills so now it's time to learn how to use them.

51. Do something else where legal skills are somewhat important but not the main qualification for the JOB.

52. Write and sell boilerplate forms online.

53. Write personnel manuals for corporations.

54. Run for Congress, pass laws that forgive all the student loans instead of the banksters and privateers making a fortune on ripping off the public. Can you imagine how many homes students would have bought if instead of bailing out the banksters we agreed to pay off all student loans? Hell, the students would have lined up to buy house and then headed to the shopping malls to buy furniture and all the stuff I'm selling at our downsizing sale.

55. To help the lawyers looking for work, add your suggestions to the comments section. Thanks.

In a future post I will discuss how to get free office space.

Facebook user accused of arson

Steve Lombardi — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 04:08:46 -0600

This is hard to fathom. You get de-friended from by your BFF on FB that leads to the Des Moines Police investigating the motive for criminal activity. Keep in mind no one has admitted to anything and no criminal activity has been proven. But still this is interesting to see where the practice of law is going and how the virtual world is impacting the court system.

Social networking spat ends in arson charges for woman, Des Moines Register

Kardashian-Humphries' big question isn't about the $2m engagement ring; but about how you choose to live your life.

Steve Lombardi — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 04:06:05 -0600

A walk down the aisle is not an investment decision.

As a lawyer I’m supposed to want big legal battles where lawyers make a big pay day. But there are some cases where level heads can save the parties not just money, but a whole lot of emotional turmoil. The Kardashian-Humphries engagement ring fight is one of those cases. I’ve written several blogs on this subject (see below) and they are read quite often. Iowa had such a case but the most famous case involved a Bush and a Chinese tycoon.

“Not every case is like Gerald Tsai vs. Sharon Bush involving an 11-carat canary-diamond ring worth an estimated $243,040. In Iowa we have no-fault divorce and so going-hand-in-hand is no-fault engagements.”

Kris Humphries might ask: Must Kim Kardashian give back the diamond ring? (That assumes he paid for it to begin with; did he? I have no idea.) Kim’s legion of lawyers may have already researched the issue. But who knows the answer, because TV's reality has nothing to do with real life.

]]>This Lawyer’s Advice about the ring: My advice is for Kris to forget about the lawyers and sign the prenup; then get back together, give the ring to charity. Kris gets a job and Kim learns to be less self-centered. Kim learn how to fish for walleye in one of those lakes that Paul Bunyan and Babe The Blue Ox made in the land of 10,000 lakes. Buy a small cabin on some lake where people will leave you alone and visit it often. Don't move away from your families because they are too important to both of you. That photograph is my stepdaughter Shannon and it pains me when she's away from Barbara and I. It's pretty obvious both of you feel the same way about your families. Life doesn’t revolve simply around us alone. And one more thing, if you don’t get back together, then give the ring back to whoever paid for it. Forget the legion of lawyers and live up to the promises you've made like the people in your pasts would have wanted you to. PERIOD, no if's, and's or but's about it.

Ask yourself: What advice would your father have given to you?

How lucky are the two of you? Well compare yourself to the guy making this quote: “I don’t need hands to hold her heart.”

Never say never and never give up on each other.

First we had the engagement, then the wedding and now divorce proceedings are said to be underway. It’s all pretty sad; the good news is it took only 72 days before perhaps they started to ask the right questions. The Huffington Post seems to be all over this story. This is truly a media event that will sell ad space. Forget the media and the circus.

Where does this fit into the history of Hollywood weddings?

Is the ring really something to fight over? Well, let’s see it’s reported to be 20.5-carats. Hmm. Some have its value pegged at $2,000,000.00. I’d say that might be worth fighting over, but then again I don't know how much these two are worth or who paid for the ring. To buy that ring someone would have had to earn about $3,000,000.00 in before-tax income. At $10/meal you could purchase two hundred thousand meals or feed one person three squares a day for 182 years.

Shortest Celebrity Marriages

Kris and Kim – 72 days.

Dennis and Carmen – 9 days.

Britney and Jason – 55 hours.

Marriage Proposals on YouTube

Worst Marriage Proposal Ever

One of the chanciest marriage proposals, ever; but probably the best one on YouTube.

Remember Cher and Gregg Allman’s 4 year marriage. Here’s Gregg singing “When a man loves a woman”? Interesting that they sang “Can you fool” together.

The shortest celebrity marriage proposal (and my favorite) was that of a hopeful fan yelling out “Steffi will you marry me?” while Graf was getting ready to serve during a professional tennis match. Holding back her laughter while bouncing the ball she looks up to the hopeful fan and yells to the crowds’ delight, “How much money do you have?” The crowd went crazy and for some reason he didn’t answer her question.

Questions to Ponder in Relation to the Ring

Who bought the ring? Who paid for it?

What State laws will apply?

Assuming one was signed, what does the prenuptial agreement say about venue and property rights? Kim Kardsahian & Kris Humphries Battled Bitterly Over Prenup!, Hollywood Life, November 3, 2011

Will whoever paid for it want the wedding ring returned?

Is the buyer willing to sue to get it back?

How will Kim react if asked to return it?

Why would any woman want to give other suitors the idea they still have the ring?

For additional blogs read these articles.

Family Law – Broken Heart – Must I Give Back the Engagement Ring?

www.lombardilaw.com/.../family-law-broken-heart-must-i-give-back...

Nov 17, 2008 – Question: My daughter's 'ex' future father-in-law is asking her to return her engagement ring over a year after his son broke off the engagement. ...

After the break up why should I give back the engagement ring?

www.lombardilaw.com/.../after-the-break-up-why-should-i-give-bac...

Oct 6, 2011 – Here are a couple of reasons why you should just give the engagementring back after a breakup. - 515-222-1110 - 1300 37th Street, Suite 6 ...

Top Ten Reasons by Mountaineers For Not Giving Back the ...

www.lombardilaw.com/.../top-ten-reasons-by-mountaineers-for-not-...

Oct 17, 2011 – Engagement ring, returning it after the breakup? Yes or No? - 515-222-1110 - 1300 37th Street, Suite 6 West Des Moines, IA 50266.

Family Law: Broken hearts and other disappointments

www.lombardilaw.com/.../family-law-broken-hearts-and-other-...

But who gets the engagement ring when the wedding is called off? In this article Steve Lombardi discussed the hows and questions to ask about whether this ...

A Testy Engagement Breakup – Wonder why this one didn't work out?

www.lombardilaw.com/.../a-testy-engagement-breakup-wonder-why-...

Jun 16, 2010 – But this latter claim I don't buy because birthday or not the ring had nothing to do with the birthday; it had to do with marriage. - 515-222-1110 ...

If you love me this prenuptial agreement will not have anything to do with our marriage.

The Cow Jumped Over The Moon

Steve Lombardi — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 04:00:05 -0600

My office mate and I recently litigated and successfully settled a cow-in-the-road case in southern Iowa. The facts are as simple as a black cow weighing 1,000 pounds out on a county road after dark where there are no lights doesn't show up in your headlights until it's too late to stop. In that case the driver's wife died. The driver was a family doctor and we thought that would help him in the community with farmers who admired his dedication to Iowa families. Think again. No one in the community came forward to admit ownership of the cow.

We thought proving ownership of the cow would be as easy as someone being honest and coming forward to admit ownership. But that's not how it's working in rural Iowa. Honesty about ownership is one concept you are not likely to find.

These are tough cases to prove as to who owned the cow. Ownership is extremely important and that means the lawyers need to be involved as quickly as possible.

Did law enforcement help? The Sheriff's are elected officials who look only so far probably not wanting to anger any of the locals. Not proving ownership in some ways gets them re elected. Law enforcement's paperwork on past instances where cows got out is in most instances, Sorry Charlie it's not available. The Sheriff's offices are little or no help.

Local knowledge washes away with the filing of a lawsuit. If there is no lawsuit every farmer will know who’s cows regularly get out onto the highway and who has lousy fences. File suit and it’s like you are on another planet. Everyone has amnesia. The locals go mute because they are for the most part deaf, dumb and half blind.

]]>Does branding help? Not much. Many cows are identified by ear tags that all farmers use. The numbering system is antiquated, non-descript, confusing, non-sequential and intended to leave room for denying ownership – should that become convenient.

Yet everyone knows how many cows they own, where they are and I'm sure someone took a tax-write-off for a dead cow. Still no one is missing a cow.

What about tax write-offs for death and depreciation schedules? You'd be surprised how many floods rural Iowa has and how many farmers keep their tax returns in locations in the house that flood. File one of these suits and you'll soon see the flooding in Iowa’s farm basements is Biblical. Noah must be living in the basements of Iowa's farms.

Anytime you read of such a case and either know the family involved or the family comes to you for advice DO NOT SIT ON THE CASE. If you don't know what to do get someone involved that does and do it quickly. If you really don't understand the case law or proof problems refer the case and move on with your practice. Like I said the proof problems are extremely difficult and the paper trails are for the most part in the hands of farmers who don't give them up very easily.

I’ll bet if I was rustling cattle everyone would know whose cow it is that I stole. Moooooo...

The local Sheriff, a farmer and their tax preparer. Iowa's best and brightest. Do as I say not as I do.

Iowa Film Scandal Net Reaches California

Steve Lombardi — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 04:08:20 -0600

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.

Why I Took A Break From Blogging and Why I'm Back

Steve Lombardi — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 04:00:22 -0600

As a personal injury lawyer it’s my business to worry about girls with ponytails.

I took a break from blogging, but I think I’m back. Then again who knows, but here is why I took a break from blogging.

I’ve been blogging for four or five years. Frankly I can’t recall because how long I’ve been writing is meaningless as to whether what I write is worth reading. I write how I feel and think about law and what I do for a living as a personal injury lawyer. Blogging on the LexBlog site is more therapeutic than anything else. So what happened that made me stop writing?

First and foremost you have to know I’m a personal injury attorney. Most people dislike us and what we do; they think we are greedy. I probably am because I hate being poor and my mother raised me to be a capitalist. But I won’t make any apology for what I do or how I do it because what I do is too important to stop.

]]>Not many people understand why I am a necessary gear in the wheels of a free and orderly society. But I am and those who say bullshit will malign me right up until they need me. Everyone thinks tort reform is needed, but it wasn’t, at least not in Iowa. People will cry for tort reform right up to the point when they need a good personal injury lawyer and then they want to sit in my office trying to convince me that none of the tort reforms matter in their case because in their view their claim is not frivolous.

Frivolous? What’s frivolous? Who defines a frivolous claim? You, me or they?

Yeah well get a clue because there are no frivolous claims in our court system; at least not here in Iowa. And don’t mention to me the McDonald’s verdict because frankly very few people know what that case was about. If you want to see frivolous, then take a look at what’s plead as a defense. There are liars and cheats but not frivolous lawsuits; and there are liars and cheats on both sides of some lawsuits. It’s my opinion there are more liars on the insurance side than the injured side, but that’s just my opinion. If you understood anything about the business of practicing law you’d understand that contingent fee cases can’t be frivolous because lawyers have bills to pay and valueless claims are worthless producing no fee.

Zippo, nadda, nothing, zilch.

This entire frivolous crap shoot took away my clients’ right to seek redress in the Courts. The entire frivolous political rhetoric got me pissed off and the more I heard from conservatives about it the more pissed off I became.

Tort reform has nothing to do with frivolous claims. It has to do with profits. Taking money from the injured and leaving it in the hands of insurance execs who then write themselves huge million dollar bonuses for having successfully cheated the injured. After the tort reform bandwagon got cranked up the harder it became for us to do for people what they needed done. I’m in the business to help people and the harder it got to help people the more pissed off it made me.

Folks, I’m a Republican and there is no difference between Democrats and Republicans. They are all gaming us to keep the discretionary spending control passing back and forth to simply take advantage of us, the taxpayers. They leave Congress wealthy because of trading stock options selected by knowing where the money will go long before they vote. Get a clue; it’s not about tort reform it’s about the golden rule. And injured people don’t own gold so they don’t make the rules to benefit the injured. I grew tired of this issue and how it affects those who need my help. I grew tired of marketing people telling me to be a good guy when what I’d really like to do is throttle those in power who distort the tort system for their own profit taking.

I’ve been writing blogs about car, motorcycle and truck accidents nonstop for a long-long time. I write nearly 1,000 blogs per year on average and every blog post is about someone who is either killed, seriously injured or can’t put food on the table. I’ve listened to the marketing guys tell us personal injury lawyers we need to appear like good guys; building image so when people need us they think of us as good guys. Horseshit. That’s like telling your oncologist to stop talking to his patients about cancer and instead to learn how to tell a good joke. We deal in blood, guts, death, brain damage, severed limbs, lies, liars, greed, tears, how to put food on the table, how to bury someone that hasn’t a burial insurance policy, how to get the life insurance out of the girlfriend’s hands and into the infant children’s stomachs or any of the other million problems people create by making poor decisions and then coming to me and asking me to walk on water. Negligence, fault and frankly just being an asshole is what I deal with on a daily basis. I don’t deal in nice things; I earn a living by spending my money to rebuild lives that are down in life’s muck. When life sucks people come knocking on my door.

“If you want to meet a nice lawyer, then go meet a plastic surgeon who holds a JD degree. Trial lawyers aren’t always nice pleasant people.”

This worry about my clients never takes a vacation in my life. I go to bed thinking about widows and orphans along with injured workers and wake up in the middle of the night with a solution or not. I battle liars and cheats who can think of a million ways to cheat the injured. This has been going on more years than I care to count, but let’s do it. Let’s count the days of my life wallowing in the muck of life. I’m 57 on November 8^th. That means I’ve been alive for 20,805 days. I started this journey to the center of the universal fringe in June 1981; but it actually started at the legal clinic for the poor in Jasper County in 1980. That’s 31 years x 365 days/year which equals 11,315 days and nights. This means 54% of my life has been spent worrying about other people’s problems. You want nice, like I said, go visit a plastic surgeon that makes a million a year smiling at people and has the ability to make them something they aren’t.

As plaintiff attorneys the issues we wrestle with are difficult. Drunks kill our clients or leave them to fend for themselves in life. My job is to put on the legal party by interviewing witnesses, collecting the medical records, bills, wage loss, estate values, car damage and all other economic losses. I put the party on; the defense simply has to show up and put arsenic in the punch bowl. I work with imperfect people who do not understand the effort it takes to make the seemingly impossible become reality. I put the party on while the defense shows up with a rifle trying to pick off just one issue. If they are successful my client’s life continues to be crap and my money goes down the drain. It’s not easy.

“It’s what we do as personal injury lawyers. We don’t have to be nice, what we have to do is be effective at problem solving.”

Judges don’t care what my problems are. As they are fond of saying this is not about fairness, it’s about law, sometimes referred to as justice. Yeah right. That’s not why I went to law school. I went to law school to help people not to move words. Money improves lives and puts food on the table not words or wearing a black robe.

So what was the straw that broke the camel’s back and forced me to walk away from blogging for awhile? It all started with reading and writing about car accidents. Then one morning around 7:30 a.m. on a country road in southeastern Iowa I hit the wall. I’m driving down Highway 16 heading towards Quincy, Illinois when I see a Suburban in front of me. It drifts off the road, spits up dust and rock, then comes back onto the hard surface and overcorrects across the center line. This goes on for miles and along the way I drive beeping the horn with a white knuckled grip on the steering wheel just trying to get the driver to pull over so I can talk with her. From behind the Suburban I can see a young high school aged girl with a ponytail that swishes back and forth as she turns her head from side to side. As the Suburban drives past semi-trucks, a tractor pulling a disc, cars and pickup trucks I’m anticipating a head-on collision. For miles I’m practicing a 9-1-1 call and mentally establishing a protocol for triaging the passengers. Who will I go to first? How many will be alive? I can still hear voices crying, moaning, pleading and asking me to help me; I anticipate having to make judgments while holding a cell phone and ordering the ambulance. I can see faces of young pretty girls who I end up making decisions that can either keep them alive or not. On the drive as we progress east on Highway 16 I’m looking in my truck’s cab for what can be used to stop bleeding. I think of my shirt and shuck off the embarrassment of how out of shape I am. I wonder how many will be in the other car or trucks that are not so lucky to get by. It bothered me then and it still bothers me today. Frankly I was sick and tired of personal injury. The incident made it all too viseral for me. I just couldn't write anymore.

Video Dash Cam from Iowa State Patrol

And so after this was resolved and everyone is safe, I was left still with sleep interrupted nights and an inability to write a blog about personal injury accidents. No longer do I want to analyze truck accidents. I start to wonder how the girls in the Suburban are doing. I wonder about their golf season and graduation. Prom and whether they are safe. Maybe it’s my nature and maybe it’s PTSD; I have no idea. I even think about the coach and how lucky she was that I was there that day. Instead of spending the rest of her life in prison she’ll get a short stint in the county jail and her life to rebuild and to enjoy sunrises and sunsets. Instead of misery from sitting alone in a prison cell with her thoughts of having killed young promising girls; she gets to move on with her life. Will she ever thank me? Do I deserve to be thanked? Why am I still pondering these things?

I have no idea why God made me the way I am, but rational thought and reason have no meaning at 2:00 a.m. when you’re staring at the ceiling trying to fall back asleep. So today I’m back to blogging and talking about personal injury law, accidental injury and I’m back to meeting with widows and orphans. To get back I had to ask myself do I really want to do this damn personal injury work; and if so why. The answer is pretty straightforward; it’s no different than the reason why I started in this business of being a lawyer. It’s that damn ponytail. That ponytail on that young lady is what makes her perfect for me and what I like to do. I was given the opportunity to be there and to stop the driver, to maybe save her life and the lives of those she sat with wondering if they would make it out alive. That's what PI work is really about. It's why I like PI work. Frankly it’s my nature and my job to worry about that ponytail. It’s what I’ve done for 31 years and it’s why I’m back to blogging and working the personal injury circuit in the Iowa Courts. It’s what we do as personal injury lawyers. We don’t have to be nice, what we have to do is be effective at problem solving.

I hope the girl with the ponytail is doing well and that all the Suburban girls are safe on prom night. Like I said, it’s my business to worry. Onward I march.

To read more about this issue see these links:

Iowa golf coach arrested for driving team to meet while drunk, By Jonathan Wall

May 11, 2011 - Fairfield girls golf coach arrested while driving team to meet; charged with OWI, child endangerment

SCOTT JACKSONCourier sports writer

MAY 18, 2011 - Iowa High School Golf Coach Arrested For Driving Team To Meet While Drunk

Posted: 2:13 PM May 11, 2011 - Coach Arrested For DUI Driving Golf Team To Meet

Teacher charged with DUI and child endangerment

Top Ten Reasons by Mountaineers For Not Giving Back the Engagement Ring

Steve Lombardi — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 05:32:35 -0600

I went trekking, the wind picked up and it’s still in my sleeping bag at 16,000 feet somewhere over China.
I was suffering from hypoxia and lost it somewhere on the mountain while attempting to summit Mt. Everest.
It fell into a squat toilet in Phakding, but I’m happy to tell you where to get another.
Out of gratitude, I gave it to the Sherpa that saved my life.
Out of necessity, I needed money for food in Kathmandu and sold it for 10,000 Rupees.
Out of the kindness of your heart, I donated it to an orphanage in Tanzania, Africa.
Just because they could, a Russian soldier took it from me while heading to Mt. Elbrus in Russia.
Due to sovereign debt problems beyond my control, the Communist government in Argentina took it from me when entering the country as I headed to Aconcagua.
Out of luck, I was living with the Maasai for a week while walking across Kenya and it went missing one night.
Out of Africa - You’ll never believe what happened to me as I was on a walking safari between villages… I was outrunning a hippo when suddenly I fell, the ring came off and the rest is history. I can give you the GPS coordinates if you’d like.

]]>To see other articles on this subject visit us at the Lombardi Law Firm:

Family Law: Broken hearts and other disappointments

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To sell the engagement rings after the breakup go to this linked site.

After the break up why should I give back the engagement ring?

Steve Lombardi — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 05:09:33 -0600

This week I received another call about an engagement ring dispute. He bought the ring, spend nearly two thousand dollars for it, they broke up and she moved out of state. He’s been trying to get the ring returned, but she’s refusing. I’m guessing she’s enjoying making his life just a little bit miserable. As my mother is fond of saying, “Steve, misery loves company.” Yes Mom it does.

So what is this guy supposed to do about getting his ring returned? I told him to sue her in small claims court in Iowa and force to either come back or else obtain a judgment against her. If I were her I’d just hand it back to him because there will be a day in the future when she has another BF and this is going to come back to haunt her. It won’t look good and sends the wrong message. So why should she give the ring back? Here is a starting point.

]]>

To show that you’re a bigger person.

Because keeping it is dwelling on the negatives in your life and that’s not healthy.

Because dating someone else and having to explain why you have a diamond from someone else, creates and awkward situation.

How about because it’s good therapy to just get over it.

Because if you don’t you’re going to get sued by your ex.

Because your heart won’t mend by keeping it.

Because it was too small to begin with.

Because the law requires you to return it.

To see other articles on this subject visit us at the Lombardi Law Firm:

Family Law: Broken hearts and other disappointments

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To sell the engagement rings after the breakup go to this linked site.

When Good Kids Go Bad - Iowa School District Settles Girls' Strip Search Case

Steve Lombardi — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 05:00:01 -0600

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

Oops Moment - Iowa store contest challenges employees to name next employee to be fired

Steve Lombardi — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 05:05:33 -0600

Some days we look back at what we did and wonder why we didn't see how dumb it would look in retrospect. Here are a few recent examples.

An Iowa convenience store chain manager created a contest for employees. The employees were asked to name the next co-worker to be fired. An Iowa judge called the contest deplorable. This mis-manager may need a time out. There is no indication if anyone picked themselves.

The imaginary-baby adoption lady is said to have violated probation and in trouble again.

The Iowa Supreme Court puts down its foot with police monitoring of attorney “confidential” visits with arrestees. Private and confidential means just that – private and confidential. You mean that video recorder and making the lawyer scream at his client through Plexiglas makes that impossible? See Barney Fife being told to go to jail, do not pass go, just go straight to jail.

Nip it in the bud Barney. Here is an actual scene from the Ankeny Police Department video interrogation.

http://youtu.be/sL9TunUh_bw

If only they understood The Cobra method of interrogation.

Trust me, I can't make this stuff up. My imagination doesn't work this well.

Recent Iowa Cases of Interest

Steve Lombardi — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 05:00:54 -0600

What’s going on in Iowa courts? That depends on what you read and who you talk with. There are many different cases of interest from the Heartland. There is one I just couldn’t help but report about.

High speed chase in Urbandale following a Medicap Pharmacy burglary call. This reminds me of the case involving the burglar who stole the erectile dysfunction drugs. The APB was for a hardened criminal. Which brings us right on to our next criminal case, one for assault.

A better way to get men to ask you out than joining eHarmony, Match.com or any of the other dating sites. This method beats having a Facebook page although the FB page might enhance the publicity you get. Woman Accused Of Hitting Boyfriend Who Refused Sex

A Johnson County judge declared a mistrial in a first-degree murder trial involving a 19-year-old man allegedly shooting a landlord. Whether the prosecutorial misconduct reaches the level where it triggers double jeopardy will be later determined. The mistrial declaration followed the showing a video tape that included references to excluded evidence. Oops!

Big brother has a very fat finger. Traffic cameras capture one license plate but the fat fingered operator entered another and sent a ticket to the wrong person. Poor Sarah Sharpnack has a car with the license plate 972YOB and the video shows a white pickup truck with license plate 972YDB. Hmmmm…. Garbage in garbage out.

]]>A West Des Moines dog saved his owner’s life by waking the homeowner up and then died.

The Des Moines City Council approved a $500,000 claim involving excessive force.

A 61-year-old man apparently fell off his deck and died of blunt force trauma. It would be interesting to know if the blunt force was to the head. There is no indication as to how high the deck was from the ground.

Twin 11-month old infants died from what is characterized as a bathtub incident. No details in the KCCI article. This is not an Iowa case; it was simply reported in Iowa from Wisconsin.

Sir, would you like a large fry with that lawsuit?

Steve Lombardi — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 05:00:39 -0600

There are times when as a personal injury lawyer who does a lot of car, truck, motorcycle accidents along with workers’ compensation claims I am completely baffled. This week I got a call from an out-of-state resident who visited Iowa and was injured at a hotel. The matter was a trip-fall type of claim. We lawyers refer to them as premise liability cases. Premise liability is a difficult case to prove, you really need an artificial defect in the property to win these cases. By artificial defect I mean something created by the owner, the lessee or the business that increased the risk of injury.

A snowy or icy condition in Iowa during the month of January in the first minutes of a storm isn’t in and of itself going to get anyone excited about your case. On the other hand if the shop owner has allowed snow and ice to accumulate for a week without walking outside and shoveling it, that might get someone interested in your case.

]]>On the other hand twenty minutes into the snow storm, you fall, it’s a loser. Does that make sense to you? It should, just think like a property owner - and a juror.

But have the building owner drain melting snow and ice across the walk to the entranceway door and you are now talking about an artificial condition that increases the risk of injury to customers. That’s a winner, but the 20” into the snow storm case isn’t. You get my drift. (Ooo bad pun.)

So when a potential client phones a lawyer saying they tripped on something, then fell and injured themselves, but has no photographs of the condition and frankly have no clue about why they tripped – that case is going nowhere fast. That’s not a case we can take and it’s certainly not a case you can win. It won’t end up on my docket.

Before you call the lawyer ask yourself this question: What did I trip or slip on and is it an artificial condition that increased the risk of injury?

And one more thing, don’t believe for a second that your case won’t be characterized by the insurance adjuster and the business owner as frivolous. Because it will be. There seems to be a huge disconnect between our clients thinking somehow the laws they voted for won’t be used against them because their case is - drum roll please - not frivolous. To the insurance industry your claim no matter what the facts is frivolous. Trust me you’re no different than the guy you characterized as having a frivolous lawsuit. So don’t assume for a second that you will be treated differently than other people – in this there is a huge disconnect.

So this week's call had this as a part of the discussion. I asked what made the woman fall and he said, "What difference should it make what made her fall?"

Are you kidding me? Do unto others my friends, as you would have them do unto you.

This is our challenge - how do you argue the Golden Rule, without arguing it? Or how do we change the Supreme Courts mind about being able to argue the Golden Rule?

You are all part of the McDonald’s Coffee Case Syndrome. Get used to it. Now can I Supersize that lawsuit sir?

Facebook News Feed and Distracted Driving - Posting from the morgue.

Steve Lombardi — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 08:36:10 -0600

Something is very wrong out there when there are so many wrong-way interstate driving events along with digitally distracted drivers. Is it distracted driving, or drunken drivers, or a combination of the two? I’m writing today because of what one younger client told me this week.

We were discussing texting while driving and I’ve now been informed that texting is dead, finished, gone by the wayside, done, fini, finished, passé’. Yes sir they no longer are texting. Now they Facebook while driving. Using Facebook’s news feed the drivers are looking at pictures, reading text and posting to their FB pages while they attempt to drive.

Texting is so yesterday.

Distracted driving and dumb drivers are a lethal combination. Here are today’s articles on wrong-way drivers.

Please follow these directions to know how to post that you're on the way to the morgue:

http://youtu.be/dES9_n7ou8w

]]>CHP officers use cruiser to corral wrong-way driver in Menlo Park
San Jose Mercury News
By Jason Green California Highway Patrol officers used a squad car to pin a fleeing, wrong-way driver to the Highway 101 median in Menlo Park early Tuesday morning, a spokesman for the agency said. The pursuit began at about 2 am when a CHP unit ...

Wrong-way driver near Bemidji causes numerous crashes
Bemidji Pioneer
The Beltrami County Sheriff's Office received at least 15 911 calls reporting the wrong-way driver about four miles north of Bemidji and then progressing from Highway 89 to US Highway 2, going east in the westbound lanes. The driver ran numerous ...

Wrongway Driver Expected to Be Charged In Crash Injuring Chesterfield Pair
Patch.com
Patch Staff The 53-year-old driver of a Chevy Tahoe was expected to be charged in the Wildhorse Creek Road crash Friday that critically injured Chesterfield residents Janet Esrock, a Whitfield School teacher, and 16-year-old son Jonathan Esrock, ...

Wrong-way driver hits four vehicles; Ada woman critically injured
Crookston Daily Times
By Staff reports A four-vehicle accident involving a Solway man driving the wrong way near Bemidji left an Ada woman in critical condition Wednesday night, according to the Minnesota State Patrol. Andrea Konoske Waagen, 27, and her passenger Delsie E. ...

Wrong way driver charged in fatal Billings crash
KPAX-TV
BILLINGS- A Laurel woman has been charged for driving the wrong way on Interstate-90, causing a collision that killed a Billings man. Kristy Ann Fox, 34, has been charged with two felonies, vehicular homicide while under the influence and criminal ...

Wrong way driver causes crash on I-275 in St. Petersburg
WTSP 10 News
St. Petersburg, Florida - Traffic was backed up along I-275 in south St. Petersburg after a driver drove the wrong way, driving north in the southbound lanes and causing several cars to collide. It happened on the Interstate at 54th Avenue South, ...

Speeding Wrong-Way Driver Crash Sends 4 To Hospital
WTAE Pittsburgh
PENN HILLS, Pa. -- Four people were hurt when two vehicles collided at the intersection of Coal Hollow and Frankstown Roads late Tuesday evening, according to Penn Hills Police. According to police, one vehicle was speeding, as well as driving in the ...

Wrong-way vehicle crash kills Azle woman, 21
Fort Worth Star Telegram
Police have not determined where the pickup driver started going north in the southbound lanes before the crash occurred near the Texas Motor Speedway near Texas 114. "We've determined that Fort Worth police got a call about a wrong-way driver," ...

Driver allegedly involved in drug deal smashes into County Jail
Los Angeles Times
Undercover narcotics officers saw the transaction about 4:30 pm and began following the man, who started to drive the wrong way through downtown, the Los Angeles Police Department said. The officers stopped their pursuit, police said, but the driver ...

Teen convicted in wrong-way crash that killed 2
Richmond Times Dispatch
With a learner's permit but no driver's license, 17-year-old Jose F. Martinez hopped into his father's GMC Yukon after drinking five to seven shots of tequila and took to the road at about 2:30 am to meet his girlfriend. Intoxicated, disoriented and ...

Wrong-Way Driver Causes Serious Accident Near Bemidji « CBS ...
By Alison Lorge
A wrong-way driver caused a crash on Highway 2 that sent several people to the hospital Thursday night.

Wrong-way driver Leonel Hernandez-Ocampo arrested after two ...
A husband and wife killed in a head-on crash Saturday night were on their way home after a day of attending two birthday parties, including that of the man's ...

Wrong way driver charged in fatal I-90 accident | KXLH.com | Helena ...
Kristy Ann Fox of Laurel has been charged for driving the wrong way on Interstate -90, causing a collision that killed a Billings man on August 21st.

Wrong-way Driver Causes Crash West of Bemidji; Ada, MN, Woman ...
NEAR BEMIDJI, MN (WDAZ-TV) - A wrong-way driver caused a crash on Highway 2 near bemidji Wednesday evening, critically injuring an Ada, MN, woman.

CHP officers use cruiser to corral wrong-way driver in Menlo Park ...
California Highway Patrol officers used a squad car to pin a fleeing, wrong-way driver to the Highway 101 median in Menlo Park early Tuesday morning, ...

VIDEO: Two Injured In South Fargo Crash
KFGO
READ MORE About 1300 Crystal workers have been locked-out of their jobs since ... READ MORE Iowa-based "Venuworks" has been associated with the building ...

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