I’m a trial lawyer for injured people and businesses at The Beasley Firm. Founded in 1958, we have recovered over $2 billion for our clients through hundreds of verdicts and settlements in excess of $1 million. We’re listed in Super Lawyers, Best Lawyers in America, U.S. News’s Top Lawyers, [...]
Do Lawyers Defending The Catholic Church Live On Another Planet?
As I've mentioned before, I think the motivations that compel lawyers to deny reality while defending some clients are varied and complex, but it cannot be denied that, in many cases, the defense is premised not on providing explanations or raising genuine doubts, but on burying the truth. Lest we forget what brought us to the ongoing criminal trial of Monsignor William Lynn, here is how the grand jury report against him begins: In September 2003, a grand jury of local citizens released a report detailing a sad history of sexual abuse by priests of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. That ... Continue Reading
The Legal Effect of Paterno’s Death
In less than three months, Joe Paterno went from one of the most revered figures in sports and a Pennsylvania institution to being implicated in a scandal, terminated from the job he had held for generations, and excoriated by the media to a historical figure who is no longer with us. He passed away over the weekend at the age of 85. A memento mori indeed. I did not attend Penn State, so I'll leave the remembrances to others. Paterno died, however, amidst a national scandal, two criminal prosecutions, and likely more than a dozen civil lawsuits to be filed. ... Continue Reading
The Ethics Of Using Money To Link Criminal And Civil Sexual Abuse Cases
Norm Pattis' latest blog post raises an issue near and dear to me: the ethics of personal injury lawyers. I certainly don't think personal injury lawyers are above reproach, and I've commented before on some of the stupid things they can do, but I'm not going to sit quietly and nod politely when a lawyer in another field claims its unethical for an alleged victim's lawyer to zealously represent their client. Norm is a criminal defense lawyer; as he posted a few days ago, the next year brings for him "trials involving child sex abuse, child pornography, drugs." I'm going to ... Continue Reading
Sandusky Civil Law Update: Insurance, New Lawsuit, and the Preliminary Hearing
My post on the potential civil lawsuits arising from the Jerry Sandusky molestation scandal at PSU still generates a fair amount of traffic, mostly from people looking for updates on the latest legal developments. If the internet asks, it shall receive. There have been four major developments relating to the case: A preliminary hearing for the criminal charges against Tim Curley and Gary Schultz; The filing of another civil lawsuit against Sandusky, Penn State, and The Second Mile; The filing of a declaratory judgment action by Federal Insurance Company of New Jersey, the insurance company for The Second Mile, to obtain a ... Continue Reading
Colleges and Universities Start To Take Campus Rape Seriously (We Hope)
The fallout from the child molestation scandal at Penn State continues with a thousand articles saying roughly the same thing and a handful of in-depth reports, like Sports Illustrated’s This is Penn State piece, which explains a lot about what Happy Valley was like: Outgoing, accessible (his home phone number is in the campus directory) and philanthropic, Paterno was the benevolent despot. But he was a despot nonetheless. Org chart be damned—unlike Schultz and Curley, Paterno is not classified as a senior staff member—he ran the place. "He built this university, he built this town, and everybody knows it," says ... Continue Reading
Can Sandusky’s Sexual Abuse Victims Sue Penn State?
[UPDATE, November 30, 2011: A previously unknown victim has filed a civil lawsuit against Sandusky, Penn State, and the Second Mile. A copy of the complaint is available here; it alleges the theories I described below, plus claims of negligent and intentional misrepresentation. There's nothing wrong with those claims, but I don't think they add much value. Intriguingly, the Complaint says the victim was 10 years old in 1992 — which means the statute of limitations turns on his birthday. If he turned 18 before August 27, 2000, he can't use the 2002 amendments to preserve his claim, and will instead have ... Continue Reading
Can Jaycee Dugard Sue The Government For Negligent Parole Supervision?
I've written several times before how difficult it is to sue the government for failing to do its job, like how you can't sue the police department for failing to enforce a court order. It's tough to sue the government even when they wrongly entrap and then kill your son for the trivial 'crime' of sports betting. The government doesn't even need to train its prosecutors in the basics of constitutional law. "Civil rights" is a tough area in which to practice law, if you're representing the plaintiffs. There aren't "typical" civil rights cases, because typical isn't good enough under ... Continue Reading
Can The West Memphis Three Sue For Wrongful Imprisonment?
The "West Memphis Three" have long been a cause célèbre, for good reason: the case had all the hallmarks of a railroad prosecution, from hysteria over Satanism to a coerced confession by a minor with a well below average I.Q. to the lack of any forensic evidence or eyewitness testimony connecting Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley to the brutal murder of three young boys in 1993. NPR's blog sums up much of the story: The original convictions, based on a theory that Echols, Baldwin and Misskelley killed the three children as part of a Satanic ritual, were the ... Continue Reading
Hotel Rape Epidemic Back In The Spotlight Again
Prompted by the Dominique Strauss-Kahn prosecution for allegedly raping a hotel maid, Jacob Tomsky in the NYTimes offered a window into the epidemic of hotel crime directed at women: On top of [their grueling work], they have to be sexually accosted by guests? Sadly, yes. And more often than you’d think. It’s not an everyday occurrence but it happens enough to make this question all too familiar: “Mr. Tomsky, can you give the new girl Room 3501 until next Tuesday? That man is back, the one who loves to let his robe fall open every time I try to clean.” ... Continue Reading
Third Circuit Reinstates Civil Rights Suit Of Rape Victim Arrested For Telling The Truth
Yesterday the Third Circuit released a unanimous precedential opinion in Reedy v. Evanson: While working as a cashier at a convenience store, nineteen-year-old Sara R. Reedy was sexually assaulted and robbed at gunpoint by a serial sex offender. She reported the crime to the police within minutes, subjected herself to a rape kit examination, and gave detailed and consistent statements to law enforcement officers and hospital staff. Reedy needed Sam Spade. Instead, she got Der Prozess: However, Detective Frank Evanson of the Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania Police Department, the lead investigator assigned to Reedy’s case, believed that Reedy had fabricated the ... Continue Reading
